All Chapters of Running Away with Alpha's Baby Bump: Chapter 121 - Chapter 130

Aria’s POVThe morning came thick with mist, curling through the estate like a living thing, softening every edge and hiding the sharp lines of stone and shadow.The shard sat on the council table, quiet now, pulsing faintly like a heartbeat that only I could feel. The estate had settled after the night’s strange tension, but the hum of resonance was stronger, fuller, more insistent. There were others out there, thresholds opening in places I couldn’t reach, waiting to be discovered.Kael, Ren, and Azrael followed me into the training hall. Their presence wasn’t intrusive, it was grounding, protective, subtle, like the four corners of a compass guiding me through a storm. I could feel them before I saw them, their warmth, the pull of attention threading through the hall, alive in the air.Maeve, Linda, and Taren were already there, circling the space I had marked for today’s training.“The exercise today,” I said, voice calm but firm, “is about thresholds interacting. Not just noticin

Aria’s POVSleep never really came.I drifted at its edges, half-aware, caught between the estate’s steady pulse and the restless vibration threading through my bones. The resonance hadn’t quieted after the arrivals. If anything, it had sharpened, refined into something deliberate, like fingers testing strings before a strike.When dawn finally broke, it did so reluctantly, pale light barely piercing the low clouds stretched tight across the sky.I was already awake when Kael knocked.Not a sound, just the pressure of him on the other side of the door, familiar as breath.“Come in,” I murmured.He did, closing it behind him with care. His presence filled the room instantly, warmth cutting through the cool morning air. He leaned back against the wall, arms folded, eyes on me in that way he had when he was assessing, not danger, but me.“You felt it all night,” he said quietly.“Yes.”“You didn’t wake us.”I met his gaze. “I didn’t want to ground myself at the cost of everyone else’s re

The estate did not sleep.Neither did we.By the third turning of the night bell, the walls themselves seemed restless, stone humming beneath bare feet, lanterns flickering with unsteady light. The wards had tightened without instruction, layers overlapping in patterns I hadn’t designed but understood instinctively. The estate was adapting faster than any of us.Fast enough to be afraid.“They’re testing perimeter responses,” Azrael said quietly, standing at the window overlooking the eastern woods. His posture was still, but his attention was not. “Small distortions. Controlled pressure.”“Like tapping glass to find cracks,” Ren muttered. He rolled his shoulders, energy coiled tight and sharp beneath his skin. No humor now. Just readiness. “So which one of us are they planning to bait?”My stomach twisted.“They already decided,” I said.Kael’s gaze snapped to me. “Aria!”“They won’t rush,” I went on, cutting him off gently. “They won’t overwhelm us with force. They’ll draw us out. D

The fog did not lift that morning.It stayed pressed low against the land, clinging to stone and leaf and bone alike, as if the world itself wanted to blur the edges of what was coming. From the highest balcony, I watched it roll in slow waves through the valley, feeling the subtle drag it placed on resonance, muting, distorting, masking.A hunting ground.“They’re hiding their approach,” Azrael said beside me.“Yes,” I replied. “And measuring how quickly I notice.”Ren leaned against the balustrade, eyes half-lidded, senses stretched thin and sharp all at once. “Joke’s on them. She noticed before breakfast.”Kael didn’t smile. His attention wasn’t on the fog or the valley beyond, it was on me, the tension in my shoulders, the way I held myself like a drawn bowstring.“They’re not moving yet,” he said. “They’re waiting for alignment.”“With what?” Ren asked.I answered before Azrael could. “Each other. And something else.”The word convergence whispered through my mind unbidden.I tur

The first consequence arrived quietly.No alarms. No rupture. No flare of hostile resonance.Just absence.I noticed it midway through the morning council briefing, when Linda paused mid-sentence and pressed her palm briefly to the stone wall behind her.“…Do you feel that?” she asked softly.I did.A familiar harmonic, the one the estate used to maintain secondary balance nodes along the outer terraces, had gone still. Not collapsed.Muted.Azrael moved fast, summoning a projection of the resonance map. A thin branch on the western edge flickered like a failing star.“That node was self-sustaining,” Maeve said. “It shouldn’t decay without interference.”“It isn’t decaying,” I replied. “It’s being withheld.”Ren’s eyes narrowed. “Like a bargaining chip.”The words tasted bitter.“Yes,” I said. “Terms begin with reminders.”Kael’s expression darkened. “They said nothing to you.”“They didn’t need to,” I answered. “This was always going to be indirect.”—--------------------------------