Lahat ng Kabanata ng Running Away with Alpha's Baby Bump: Kabanata 61 - Kabanata 70

(Kael’s POV)The Hollow was silent, almost too silent.Kael lay awake on the ridge, the baby nestled in Aria’s arms nearby. The fire had long since burned low, leaving only embers that glowed faintly against the night. Every muscle in his body ached, but it wasn’t exhaustion that kept him alert. It was awareness, the pulse beneath his skin, the faint hum in the earth beneath the Hollow, the steady reminder that the Deep had not forgotten him.He flexed his fingers, watching the black veins thread under his skin, gold sparks flickering with every heartbeat. The power was patient, waiting. It wasn’t calling out yet, not fully, but it was probing, testing the boundaries of his control.Aria shifted beside him, stirring slightly in her sleep. Her hair fell over her face, damp from sweat, and Kael’s hand twitched toward her instinctively. He didn’t touch her, not yet. Instead, he just watched, letting the steady rhythm of her breathing anchor him.“Don’t let it scare you,” he murmured, m

Kael’s POVThe morning after the tremor was unnaturally still.Mist clung to the trees in thin ribbons, catching the faint gold light that filtered through the clouds. The Hollow looked almost peaceful from where Kael stood on the ridge, but he knew better. Stillness didn’t mean safety. It meant the Deep was thinking.He adjusted the worn strap across his shoulder, scanning the tree line as the wind stirred the ash from last night’s fire. Aria was below, kneeling near the stream that wound through the Hollow’s floor. The baby slept in the basket beside her, wrapped in Kael’s old cloak.For a moment, he just watched her. The sunlight brushed against her hair, making it glint like burnished copper. Even here, surrounded by ruins and echoes of a broken world, she looked like something alive, something defiant.That was the part of her the Deep would never understand.He felt it still, the faint pulse under the ground, slow and patient. It wasn’t retreating; it was observing. The power th

Aria’s POV)The Hollow had never felt this awake.By dawn, the veins in the stone still glowed faintly gold and silver, the lingering echo of what she and Kael had done in the Gate Chamber. The pulse beneath the ground beat steady now, no longer the erratic rhythm of a place haunted by the Deep. But the quiet wasn’t peace. It was waiting.Aria stood on the ridge above the Hollow, the mist curling around her boots as the first hints of morning spilled through the broken canopy. Below, figures moved between the stone paths, her people, Kael’s people. Wolves.The Clan had gathered.They came from the outer dens and the high spires, called back by word that the Deep had risen and the Hollow had changed. Warriors, healers, trackers, every face shadowed by fatigue and fear, yet lit by a fragile ember of hope. For the first time since the fall of the old packs, the wolf bloodlines stood in one place again.Kael was already there, at the heart of the clearing, his stance taut but commanding.

( Aria’s POV )The Northern Path wasn’t a road. It was a wound.Frost clung to every branch, every root, every breath. The further they went, the quieter the world became, like the Hollow’s hum had been swallowed whole by the cold. Even the wolves moved in near silence, their boots crunching softly through the snow, their breath misting like ghosts.Aria’s senses prickled with unease. The forest here wasn’t dead; it was listening. The trees leaned inward, branches heavy with ice, forming arches that almost looked carved. Every few steps she caught faint impressions in the frost, claw marks too large to be from wolves, trails that vanished mid-step.“Something’s tracking us,” she murmured.Kael glanced over his shoulder. His golden light pulsed faintly beneath his gloves as he flexed his hands. “I know. It’s been following since dawn.”“Deep?”He shook his head. “Not quite. Something caught between.”The others heard him but didn’t speak. The pack moved in a wide formation, five across

Aria’s POVThe Northern Path narrowed, cliffs on either side now scraping the gray sky. Frost glittered on every branch, but it was deceptive and beneath it, the earth groaned and shifted. Aria’s boots crunched over snow so thin in places it barely covered the rock, each step echoing in the silence.Kael moved beside her, shoulders tense, light pulsing faintly beneath his gloves. “The tremors aren’t stopping,” he murmured. “Whatever lies ahead isn’t waiting. It’s moving.”Aria’s gaze swept the ridge ahead. A faint shimmer, like heat over stone, blurred the horizon. The next gate waited there, but it wasn’t alone. Figures flitted in the distance, half-shadow, half-solid, like wraiths born from ice and nightmare.Verran stopped behind them, ears flat against his skull. “They’ve brought reinforcements,” he said, low and rough. “The ones from the canyon weren’t scouts but they were bait.”A cold knot of dread tightened in Aria’s chest. “How many?”“Enough to make a mistake deadly.”The pa