Chapter 161

Grace

I drifted through the darkness before the cold of a night wind swept around me. As the darkness parted, I grew colder. Dead, gnarled trees stretch up around me. The ground was dead. The bark was black. The desolate, eerie forest stretched endlessly before me. Its skeletal trees reached for the moonlight, casting long, haunting shadows.

The silence was oppressive, broken only by the distant murmur of unseen creatures. I could hear my heart pounding my chest. My breath fogged the air.

Where was I?

I shuddered, looking around. I had never had such a hauntingly real-feeling dream before, at least not one that didn't involve sex. The air held a chill that seeped into my bones, and an inexplicable sense of urgency gripped my chest. Something scuffled nearby in the darkness, and before I could think, I began to run. My footsteps were muffled by the thick layer of decaying leaves and barren earth.

The air smelled rotten. I couldn't breathe enough to ease the burning in my lungs.

I ran through the gnarled maze of trees, not sure of where I was going or what I was searching for.

I didn't even know what I was running from.

The landscape shifted with an otherworldly fluidity like I was just running in circles. Everything looked the same. Yet, I knew I had to keep going. There was something I was searching for, something vital, something that might change everything I ever knew about myself, about the world. But what was it? I didn't know. I couldn't even guess. Everything felt shrouded in the midst of the dream.

Everything but the thudding of feet following me--chasing me. Every part of me was on alert, screaming for me to run, to escape, even though I wasn't usually one to run.

I scoffed at that thought. All I had been doing for years was running. Maybe once, I hadn't been such a coward, but that version of me had been young, foolish, and completely safe in the fact that she was in Mooncrest. She was the alpha's daughter.

She had been protected and untouchable in ways that I hadn't been in a long time...

If ever...

Something grew closer. My heart kicked into a faster beat. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a shadowy presence closing in from behind. The pounding of my heart echoed in the air. The whole world seemed to shake with it. My legs burned.

How much further?

How much further could I run?

Did I have a choice?

Breaking through the oppressive thicket, I stumbled into a moonlit clearing. A silhouette loomed, and my breath caught. Alpha Shadow, eyes glowing in the dark, toying with a glowing hourglass, regarded me with an intensity that was more unsettling now than it had been on the screen.

Was he in my dreams now? Actually? What did he want? The forest, with its ghostly silence, seemed to hold its breath in anticipation.

Then, I got angry. The anger about everything that had happened started to burn in me. A warning went off in the back of my mind, holding me in place.

"What do you want?" He tilted his head silently. I growled. "Answer me!"

His laughter rocked through the air.

Moonlight and darkness danced around me to the tune of his mocking laughter.

And then, I woke, sitting up in bed alone. The forest, the pursuit, the enigmatic gaze of Alpha Shadow — all dissolved like mist at the first light of dawn. Yet, the residue of the dream lingered, leaving behind an unsettling feeling. There was something wrong.

Something was missing that I couldn't say for sure. I looked to my left. There was someone missing.

I threw my blankets off and opened the door. I froze seeing Devin on the other side, half-dressed like I was back in a memory that I never wanted to remember. He smiled at me.

"Looking a little disheveled there," he said. "Shouldn't you at least try?"

I blinked at him.

I hadn't woken up, and I remembered this. It had been the morning that I learned he was cheating on me. He put on his cufflinks just like always. Looking at this memory, knowing what happened next, made my stomach turn.

"Where's Charles?"

He turned to look at me. His eyes glowed like Alpha Shadows.

"Is that really what you're worried about?"

"What?"

"Though I guess you are always worried about a man before worrying about your family."

The words hit me hard, landing like a punch to the gut.

This wasn't a memory. He was here with me, but--

The sound of shattering glass echoed from down the hall where Cecil and Richard's rooms were. I shoved past Devin, who laughed with Alpha Shadow's voice.

"Cecil!" I screamed. A surge of panic made my chest tight and propelled me down the hall so fast it felt like I was flying.

The door was locked, but I could hear the rushing air beyond the door. I pushed and shoved at the door, throwing my whole body against it until, finally, it broke open.

I landed, not in Cecil's room or in the nursery, but in a heap in the center of Mooncrest. Flames were devouring every building. Bodies were strewn everywhere. I didn't see Cecil or Richard anywhere.

There was no one alive.

"Cecil?" I called, my voice echoing in the smoky air. "Richard?"

I couldn't breathe. The panic started to drag me under. I got to my feet running through the burning wreckage of the city. I didn't care who I passed. I didn't care whose body I ran over.

Where was Cecil?

Where was Richard?

Yet, I was powerless, a mere spectator in this distorted reality. Cecil and Richard were wrenched from my grasp, their figures disappearing into the consuming flames. The acrid scent of burning dreams clung to the air as Mooncrest crumbled around me, a once vibrant haven reduced to smoldering ruins.

"Cecil?" I screamed, reaching the front of Wolf Medical as the building started to crumble.

"Eason?" I yelled. "Charles?"

No one answered me.

"Did you expect them to survive?" I whirled around to where Alpha Shadow, still wearing Devin's skin, was walking up behind me, dressed in Devin's favorite suit.

"Let me out of here," I growled. "This isn't exactly playing by the challenge's rules--"

I broke off and looked down at my arm. The two challenge rings had turned a bright, vibrant red. What did that mean?

"You failed," Alpha Shadow said, chuckling. "Did you really expect anything else?"

"I--"

A gunshot pierced through the dreamscape, shattering the dream world like glass. I sat up, screaming, breathless and soaked in sweat. The blankets were mussed. I was in the same room. I felt sick, but I pitched myself out of the bed just as the bathroom door opened.

I couldn't see straight. It was like the whole world was still shaking. The gunshot rang through my ears. The room seemed smaller, more confined, as if the dream had bled into reality, and the line between the two had become indistinct. Someone was talking to me. The room swirled around me. I tried to fight against the hands on me.

"Let me go! Cecil! Richard!"

The arms pulled me close, pressing me into something warm that smelled faintly musky, a tinge of coffee and bourbon.

"Charles?" I whispered, shivering as I could hear his heart beating beneath my ear. I felt the rumble of his voice, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. I could still feel the heat of the fire. The coldness of the forest. Devin laughing at me with Alpha Shadow's eyes and voice. My stomach lurched, and I was lifted up and flown into the bathroom just as whatever was left in my stomach came out. I choked and wretched. I heard someone behind me, another voice, but the heat in my face, rising through me, and the ringing of my ears made it hard to hear anything.

Slowly, someone pulled me back, vision swirled. Lights flashed in my eyes. I saw Eason's starlight gaze. Maybe it was Esme. I couldn't tell, but I blinked and blinked again.

"... hear me?"

I whimpered. "Eason?"

"Yeah, Science Queen," he said softly. "It's me. Deep breaths, okay? Can you tell me--"

"C-Cecil? Richard?"

"Downstairs being spoiled to death by Esme," Eason said. "Just take it easy."

Someone lifted me up slowly, leaning me against something warm.

"Charles?"

"Yeah," Charles said, his voice finally making it through the panic. "That's it. Deep breaths."

The scent of coffee hit my nose more strongly. It felt like a zing of energy that pushed back my exhaustion.

"I think you should stay home today."

"No," I said, shaking my head. "Class. Meeting."

"You defense meeting?"

I nodded stiffly. Eason sighed.

"Fine, but you're not going into the office before. Maybe after if you improve."

I felt his hands on my neck. I heard him curse. They said something. Then, I was carried back to bed. The door opened and closed.

"Grace," Charles said softly. "Could you tell me what your dream was about?"