Semua Bab Running Away with Alpha's Baby Bump: Bab 101 - Bab 110

( Kael’s POV ) Night pressed in around the estate like a held breath.Too quiet.I felt it in the way the wards hummed sharper than usual, in the way my wolf paced beneath my skin, unsatisfied, restless, hunting. Aria slept tucked against my chest, her weight warm and real, her heartbeat steady beneath my palm.Still, I didn’t relax.I never would again.She lay in the bed I rarely used with massive, carved oak, magic-threaded into the frame itself. I hadn’t bothered undressing her fully. Just enough to make her comfortable. Enough to see that the black residue was gone, her skin clear of shadow, her magic humming softly again like moonlight over water.Claimed by nothing.Not yet.I brushed my thumb over the faint bruise on her arm, fury coiling hot and patient in my gut. A bruise meant someone had touched her. That they had gotten close enough to think they could take what wasn’t theirs.A mistake they would not live to learn from twice.Aria shifted, brow furrowing. Her fingers ti

( Kael’s POV ) The bond woke me before the wards screamed.Not noise.Pressure.A wrongness that slid across my skin like oil over water.I was on my feet in the dark before Aria stirred, already reaching for the blades under the bed, magic snapping awake in my veins. The estate exhaled a warning tremor, a low, resonant thrum that meant something had touched the outer perimeter.Not breached.Tested.I turned to Aria.She was already sitting up, eyes glowing faintly silver in the half-dark, breath steady despite the danger punching through the air.“You feel it,” I said.She nodded once. “They’re closer.”“Stay here.”“No.”I didn’t argue.There wasn’t time, and worse, I couldn’t bring myself to force her now. The bond would fight me if I tried. It didn’t want cages. It wanted alignment.Fine.I helped her to her feet and threw her one of Lira’s ward-threaded jackets. She shrugged into it, magic flaring instinctively as it sealed around her.“You don’t have to lead,” I said quietly a

(Aria’s POV)Preparation is a quieter kind of war.There are no screams in it. No blood singing on stone. Just intention, tempered, tested, struck again and again until it holds.By dawn, the estate had shifted from repair to readiness. Corridors subtly reoriented themselves, shaving distance, reinforcing thresholds. Wards thickened like gathered breath. The magic wasn’t frantic.It was focused.I stood in the map chamber while Azrael sketched silver light into the air, thin lines linking sigils that pulsed like distant stars. Three points emerged with three convergences and each humming with a different pitch of danger.The Hollow Crown burned brightest.“You’re certain?” I asked.Azrael lowered his hand. The constellation steadied. “It reacted to you before you ever knew what you were. Places don’t do that without cause.”“Reassuring,” Ren drawled from his place against the wall, sharpening a blade that seemed to drink the light around it.Matteo didn’t smile. He stood near the thre

(Aria’s POV)Morning didn’t arrive all at once.It slipped in quietly, pale light filtering through the high windows like it didn’t want to interrupt what still lingered in the air. The chamber smelled of stone, magic, and something warmer, skin and trust and the aftermath of choice.I woke wrapped in bodies.Kael was solid at my back, one arm curved around my waist, his breath warm against my shoulder. Matteo lay to my left, on his side, close enough that our foreheads nearly touched, his expression peaceful in a way that made my chest ache. Ren had claimed the foot of the couch entirely, one arm flung over his eyes, boots discarded in some act of rare surrender. Azrael sat upright on the floor nearby, back against the stone, eyes open.Keeping watch.Of course he was.The bond was quiet now, not asleep, just… content. Like a tide drawn back but never gone.I shifted carefully, and Kael stirred immediately.“You’re awake,” he murmured, voice rough with sleep and something deeper.“Ju

Aria’s POVThe delegation left behind more than footprints.For days after they passed through the gates, the land carried the echo of their certainty. Farmers along the eastern ridge reported straighter harvest lines, as if the soil itself had remembered how it preferred to be treated. Animals that once refused certain paths moved through them again without hesitation. Even the wind shifted, being less restless, more intentional.None of it felt like obedience.It felt like acknowledgment.That unsettled me more than fear ever had.I stood alone in the inner courtyard at dawn, palms resting against the cool stone of the well, breathing in air that felt newly honest. The sigils beneath my feet no longer thrummed under strain. They existed now the way bones do, supportive, quiet, unquestioned.“You’re doing it again,” Ren said from behind me.I smiled faintly. “Standing still?”“Listening without realizing it,” he corrected, coming to lean against a column. “You go quiet right before s