Chapter Twenty Five - The Morning After the Storm (Aria's POV )

Dawn crept slow through the trees, painting the forest in pale gold. The rain had left the world hushed and new. Every branch dripped with light, every shadow softened by mist. For the first time in days, the air didn’t smell like blood or fear. It smelled like promise.

I woke to the warmth of Kael’s arm draped across my waist. His chest rose and fell against my back, steady and quiet. For a moment, I let myself sink into it, the rhythm of him, the rare peace in the Alpha’s breathing. His scent, woodsmoke and wild air, filled my lungs.

He stirred as I did. “Morning,” he murmured, his voice rough with sleep.

I turned slightly, catching his faint smile. “You almost sound human when you say it like that.”

He smirked. “Don’t tell anyone. It’ll ruin my reputation.”

But the teasing didn’t last long. The light shifted, and I saw it, the weight already settling back on his shoulders. The leader’s burden. The Alpha again.

He sat up, running a hand through his damp hair. “We need to move before they regroup.”

“The rival pack?”

He nodded. “They’ll want to strike again before we can.”

I watched the fire’s last embers die and felt a quiet unease stir in my chest. The prophecy’s shadow still lingered, even in peace.

We left the hollow by mid-morning, following a narrow trail through dripping pines. The world smelled sharp and alive, the sound of distant streams threading through the stillness. Kael moved ahead, silent and alert, every sense tuned to danger.

I stayed close but not too close. Part of me needed space to breathe, to make sense of what had changed between us.

The night before had felt like surrender, but not the kind that weakens. It had been a promise, wordless and deep. But morning light brought reality with it. I wasn’t just a woman in love with an Alpha. I was carrying something the world wanted, something powerful, dangerous.

And now, it wasn’t only my life at risk.

By noon, the wind shifted. Kael’s head snapped up, nostrils flaring. “They’re here.”

Before I could ask who, the first howl split the silence. It wasn’t his pack. It was lower, darker, wrong.

“Rogue Alphas,” Kael growled. “They’ve joined forces.”

The forest exploded around us, shadows lunging from the trees, teeth and claws flashing in the light. Kael shifted mid-motion, his body rippling into the massive silver form I knew as both terrifying and beautiful. His roar shook the air.

I ducked behind a fallen trunk as a rogue wolf lunged. My instincts flared, the pulse of power in my blood thrumming awake. I threw out a hand, and the earth beneath the wolf cracked, roots bursting upward to slam it aside.

Kael tore through two more attackers, his movements deadly and precise. But even he couldn’t hold against all of them. There were too many. The rival Alpha appeared at last. A beast of ash-gray fur and eyes like frostbitten steel. His snarl vibrated through the ground.

Kael charged him, and the two collided with a sound like thunder. They were matched in strength, claws raking, jaws snapping. Blood sprayed, steam rising in the cold air.

Then the gray Alpha feinted left, slammed into Kael’s side, and drove him hard into a tree. Kael’s body hit the ground with a sickening thud.

“Kael!”

Before I knew I’d moved, I was running. The rogue Alpha turned toward me, snarling, his eyes flickering with cruel recognition. “The witch’s daughter,” he hissed in a voice that wasn’t quite human. “The womb that carries the prophecy.”

Rage surged through me, pure, electric. My skin burned, the mark beneath my collarbone pulsing like fire. “You should’ve stayed in the shadows,” I whispered.

He lunged, but I was faster. The air split with light. My power burst outward in a ring of force that sent the Alpha crashing back through the trees. The ground shuddered under the blast.

Kael groaned, trying to rise. I dropped to my knees beside him, pressing a hand to his chest. His wolf form flickered, bones reshaping, fur receding until his skin met my palm. His breath was shallow but steady.

“You saved me,” he rasped.

I blinked away the sting in my eyes. “You make it a full-time job.”

Despite the pain, he managed a smile. “You’re getting stronger.”

The forest was eerily quiet now, the rogues retreating into the mist. I looked around, trees torn open, roots ripped from the earth, blood staining the moss. What I’d done terrified me. But somewhere beneath the fear, pride stirred. I had protected him. I had protected us.

For the first time, Kael looked at me not as something to shield, but as an equal.

By evening, Kael’s pack arrived, alerted by the battle’s echo. Several wolves carried injuries from smaller clashes across the territory. When they saw their Alpha bloodied but alive, a collective relief rippled through them.

“We’ll regroup here,” Kael commanded. “No one leaves the perimeter until dawn.”

His Beta, Darius, stepped forward. “They came in numbers we haven’t seen before. Someone’s uniting the outcasts.”

Kael’s jaw tightened. “Then we’ll unite faster.”

I could see the strain behind his composure, the Alpha’s instinct to lead, even when the father in him wanted to keep me hidden, safe. But there was no safety left. The enemy had found us, and the prophecy was no longer a whisper—it was war.

That night, I sat alone at the edge of camp. The pack’s fire glowed a short distance away, their murmurs blending with the wind. Kael was speaking quietly with his lieutenants, issuing orders, his voice hard again.

I pressed my hands against my stomach. Beneath my palm, I thought I felt a faint flutter. The child. Ours.

A tear slipped down my cheek before I could stop it. What kind of world am I bringing you into?

Motherhood had once seemed abstract, something distant, almost peaceful. But now I understood it differently. It wasn’t just nurturing. It was war. It was fighting for something beyond yourself, every second, every breath.

I looked toward Kael, and the ache in my chest deepened. I had saved him today, but I couldn’t save him from everything. And if the prophecy demanded blood, whose would it take?

Later, when the others had fallen quiet, he came to me.

“You shouldn’t sit out here alone,” he said softly.

I didn’t look up. “I needed to think.”

He crouched beside me, his eyes catching the light of the distant fire. “About the child.”

“And you,” I admitted.

A faint smile tugged at his mouth, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “You saved my life today.”

“I told you,” I said quietly. “You’re not the only one who can fight.”

“You shouldn’t have to.” His gaze drifted to my hands, then my stomach. “Every time I see you risk yourself, I...” He broke off, his throat tightening. “I can’t think like a mate. I have to think like an Alpha. But I don’t know how to be both.”

I reached up, brushing my fingers against his jaw. “Maybe that’s the point,” I whispered. “You don’t have to choose. You just have to trust me to stand beside you.”

His eyes softened, a storm breaking into light. “You’re not afraid of me anymore.”

I shook my head. “I never was. I was afraid of losing you.”

He leaned closer, pressing his forehead to mine. “You won’t,” he murmured. “Not while I breathe.”

Behind him, the night stretched wide and watchful. Somewhere in the darkness, wolves howled, both ally and enemy. The fragile truce of the packs wouldn’t hold long. Tomorrow, blood would spill again.

But for now, Kael’s hand found mine, warm and steady. The fire’s glow reached us in flickers, casting our shadows together on the wet earth.

And for the first time, I didn’t feel hunted.

I felt ready.