All Chapters of Running Away with Alpha's Baby Bump: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Aria’s POVThe Hollow had slept for four months.Or maybe, Aria thought as she looked down at her son, it had only been dreaming.Snow drifted outside the cabin window, thick and soundless, burying the world beneath layers of white and stillness. The Northern Path had vanished beneath winter’s weight. What remained of the pack lived in the hollowed ribs of an old outpost— and half refuge, half reminder of what they’d survived. The gate they sealed months ago still glowed faintly beyond the ridge, a dying ember pulsing beneath the ice.Aria cradled her son close. Storm.He slept fitfully, brow furrowed, as though already sensing things far beyond his reach. His small fingers curled around hers, warm against the cold that seeped from the stone floor. Each breath he took fogged the air in fragile ghosts, proof that he was real and alive, human. And yet, not untouched.The Hollow’s pulse still moved faintly beneath their feet, a heartbeat buried deep in the frozen world. Sometimes, when t

(Kael’s POV)The Hollow didn’t sleep that night.Even after the lightning faded from the cliffs and the rain thinned to a mist, the air thrummed with a strange pulse, like the storm had left part of itself behind. Every wolf could feel it and the sharp edge of magic that wasn’t ours.I stood at the longhouse door, staring out at the dark line of the forest. The trees still leaned wrong, bent away from the heart of the Hollow like they feared what waited inside.Behind me, I could hear Aria humming softly to Storm. The boy had finally fallen into an uneasy sleep, though the glow in his eyes never fully went out. It flickered like dying embers.“He’s quiet,” I said, not turning.“For now,” she answered. Her voice was a whisper, frayed and tired. “Every time thunder rolls, he stirs.”I finally turned to look at them and Aria seat by the hearth, her hair damp and tangled, her arms wrapped around our son as though she could keep the world from touching him. Storm’s hand twitched, fingers c

( Kael’s POV)The river still roared in my ears long after the battle had gone silent.Smoke rose between the trees with blue, cold, and wrong. The scent of burning magic hung thick in the air, and every step forward felt heavier, as though the forest itself were trying to keep me from moving.Half the pack was gone. The rest were wounded. Lira limped at my side, her hands trembling around the cracked remains of her wardstones.“She ran for the river,” she said. Her voice was hoarse, half-broken. “I saw her. Aria had Storm.”I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. If I spoke, I’d taste blood again. Not the enemy’s but mine. The Hollow was gone, swallowed by the mist. Every memory we had there burned to ash.Now there was only the forest. And the sound of the river calling like a blade drawn from a sheath.-------------------------------------------------------We reached the clearing just before dawn.The mist was thin here, shredded by wind and light, but the air still stank of death. The trees

(Aria’s POV)The mountain breathed.It wasn’t wind. It wasn’t the slow collapse of stone. It was deeper and alive. Each tremor came with a low, resonant hum, like the earth itself was singing through its bones. I could taste it in the air with metal and blood and something older still, something that remembered when the first wolves were carved from moonlight.Storm stirred in my arms. “It’s loud,” he whispered, voice thin and frightened. “It’s calling again.”Kael rose, sword still slick with the fading light of battle. His eyes glowed faintly gold, the mark of the Alpha barely restrained. “We need to move.”“Move where?” Lira hissed, pressing her palm to the trembling wall. “The mountain’s closing around us!”She wasn’t wrong. The cavern walls pulsed, rippling like muscle under skin, the runes along the stone flaring bright before fading again. Something vast and sleeping was shifting beneath us.Kael’s jaw tightened. “There’s a passage ahead. I saw it when the ghosts rose.”I swall

(Aria’s POV)The heartbeat in the sky didn’t fade.It grew louder.By the second night, it had taken on rhythm nice and slow, deliberate, like the moon itself was breathing. The wolves grew restless, their ears twitching toward the sound none of us could name. Even Kael, who hid his unease behind the calm of command, had started glancing upward more than usual.I tried not to. The sight made my stomach twist. The moon wasn’t supposed to move, but it did and too slow to see, too deliberate to be chance. It was watching us.We made camp at the edge of the Frostline. Wind howled across the plains, scattering snow like ash. Lira huddled near the fire, tracing runes into the dirt with shaking fingers, her lips forming prayers that the flames didn’t seem to hear.I sat apart, Storm’s cloak bundled in my arms. It still smelled faintly of him like wild mint, rain, something sharp and new. I hadn’t washed it, though Kael had offered. I couldn’t.Every night I dreamed of him. Sometimes he was a