Chapter 19 Nineteen
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Sara’s POV
Xenon carried me up the stairs, each step steady despite the weight of everything pressing down on us. My breathing had mostly calmed, but my hands still trembled from the memory flash. It sat in my chest like a heavy stone, refusing to settle.
Kael moved ahead, checking each corner before signaling us forward. Ryker followed close, his eyes scanning every shadow, every doorway, every shift of air.
No one spoke.
The silence wasn’t calm. It was the kind that felt like something was watching from just out of sight.
When we reached the main level, Xenon pushed open a reinforced side door and stepped into a dim hallway lit by flickering lanterns. I felt the change immediately. The air was warmer, the noise of the pack house faintly audible.
But there was something else too.
A pulse beneath my ribs.
Not another flash.
Not yet.
Just a reminder that whatever had woken inside me wasn’t going back to sleep.
Xenon set me down gently onto a bench near the inner council chamber. His hand remained on my back for a moment longer than necessary.
“Are you steady,” he asked.
“Yes,” I whispered, even though my knees felt unreliable.
He crouched in front of me, his hands resting on my knees as he studied my face. His eyes were sharper than before, but not angry. Focused. Alert. Protective in a way that felt almost palpable.
“You listen to me carefully,” he said. “If another flash comes, you tell me the moment you feel it. Even if it is faint.”
“I will.”
“Good.”
Kael approached. “We cannot stay out here long. The Creed won’t attack the main halls directly, but they will attempt to surround us.”
Ryker nodded. “We need to move her to the upper quarters. Not your wing, Alpha. They know that location.”
Xenon frowned. “Then where.”
“The old council rooms,” Kael said. “They were built with protective stonework and older shielding. The Creed will not sense her there.”
Xenon stood. “We move now.”
Ryker led the way. Kael followed close behind him. Xenon helped me up, his hand sliding to my arm when I swayed slightly.
“I can walk,” I murmured.
He didn’t let go. “I know. I am still holding you.”
We moved through the quiet hallways, turning left into a narrower corridor that led toward the abandoned council wing. The pack house grew quieter as we went—too quiet. The air no longer held the chatter of wolves moving through their routines.
Xenon’s wolf was aware.
Mine was too.
The silence felt like it was watching us.
Kael reached a heavy wooden door carved with old symbols and pushed it open. The room inside was dark but spacious. Stone walls rose high above us, etched with protective markings I didn’t recognize.
“This is as safe as it gets,” Kael said.
Xenon guided me toward the center of the room. “Sit.”
I sat on a low stone seat. Xenon stood in front of me, arms crossed, eyes never leaving my face.
Kael placed a lantern on the table and turned toward him. “Alpha. You need to understand something. The next flash will be stronger. They come in escalating waves.”
Xenon’s jaw tightened. “I will handle it.”
“You cannot control what she sees,” Kael said. “If the memory is tied to trauma, it may disorient her.”
Xenon stepped closer to me, his voice low. “If you feel anything shift, you look at me. Not the memory. Not the room. Me.”
My chest tightened. “What if it pulls me too fast.”
“Then I pull you back,” he said.
Before I could respond, Ryker reentered. “Alpha. There is movement in the eastern hall.”
Xenon’s expression sharpened. “How many.”
“We are not sure,” Ryker said. “But they are not pack.”
Kael stiffened. “Then the Creed is closer than we thought.”
Xenon moved toward the door instantly. “We need to seal this wing.”
Ryker nodded and left to carry out the order.
Xenon returned to me and lowered himself to sit on the stone seat beside mine. Close. Close enough that his shoulder brushed mine.
He didn’t speak.
He didn’t have to.
The tension in the room was thick, everything around us too quiet, too still.
Then something shifted.
A faint pressure.
A flicker in my vision.
A tightening in my chest.
I grabbed Xenon’s forearm. “It is happening again.”
He turned instantly. “Stay with me.”
Kael stepped forward. “Do not fight it. Just focus.”
The room blurred.
Stone walls disappeared.
Cold wind hit my skin.
A forest.
Dark.
Silent.
But this time I wasn’t watching from afar.
I was inside it.
A woman ran ahead of me. Her hair long. Her breath uneven. She held my hand in hers. I was small. A child. My feet stumbled as she pulled me through the trees.
“Do not stop,” she whispered urgently. “Do not look back.”
Her voice.
I knew that voice.
I knew it.
It hit me with sharp recognition that made my real-world breath stumble.
The vision jerked.
I saw a mark carved into a stone.
The same symbol the Creed used.
But older.
Deeper.
Then a man stepped out from behind the stone.
His eyes were wrong.
Empty.
Unblinking.
He reached out.
And the woman screamed my name.
Not Sara.
Another name.
A name that hit my chest like a punch.
The vision snapped.
I gasped and collapsed forward.
Xenon caught me instantly and pulled me into his chest. “Breathe. Look at me.”
My chest heaved. “I saw her.”
“Who,” he asked softly.
“My mother.”
Xenon froze.
Kael stepped closer. “What did she say.”
I swallowed hard. “She said… do not look back.”
Kael exchanged a tense look with Xenon. “It is beginning.”
Xenon wrapped an arm around my back, steadying me. “Sara. Look at me.”
I did.
His voice was calm, but underneath it was something I had never heard from him before.
Fear.
“The man in your memory,” Xenon said slowly. “Describe him.”
I shook my head. “I did not see enough.”
“But you saw something,” Kael pressed.
“Yes,” I whispered. “His eyes. They looked… wrong.”
Kael’s face dropped. “She saw him.”
Xenon’s grip tightened. “Saw who.”
Kael hesitated. “The one who hunted her bloodline before the Creed did. The one they follow.”
Xenon’s expression darkened. “He is alive.”
“Yes,” Kael said. “And now he knows she is too.”
Before anyone could speak again, Ryker burst through the door.
“Alpha—”
Xenon stood. “What is it.”
Ryker looked directly at me.
“They found him.”
Xenon stiffened. “Who.”
Ryker swallowed.
“The man from her memory.”
My blood turned cold.
Kael paled. “He should not be able to enter the pack.”
“He did,” Ryker said. “And he is asking for Sara.”
Xenon’s wolf pushed so hard the air shook.
“No one touches her,” he said. “Not him. Not the Creed. Not anyone.”
He turned to me again.
“Sara. You stay behind me.”
I nodded, but my heartbeat wouldn’t settle.
Because even though I didn’t know his name, didn’t know his face, didn’t understand the memory—
My blood recognized him.
And something inside me whispered a truth I didn’t want.
He wasn’t here to find me.
He was here to claim me.