Chapter 95

Chapter 95
Trevor's POV 

The moment Evelyn’s foot crossed the threshold of the Gate’s light, something shifted in the air, pressure dropping, oxygen thinning, like the world inhaled sharply and forgot how to exhale. I felt it deep in my bones. Ancient. Heavy. Wrong and right at the same time.

I tightened my hold on her hand.

She didn’t look scared.
But she didn’t look calm either.

She looked… pulled.

Like something inside the Gate recognized her blood and wanted it. Needed it.

And that made every instinct in me snarl.

Rowan and Jason remained just behind us, weapons ready, eyes scanning the perimeter as the Gate pulsed in steady silver currents. The Echoed One drifted to the side, her presence dimming as if the Gate itself stole her light.

“Once you enter,” she said, her voice layered with echoes again, “you walk the path written for you.”

I stepped forward enough to block her view of Evelyn.

“Her path includes me,” I said flatly.

The Echoed One tilted her head. “If she wishes it.”

Evelyn squeezed my hand light, but firm. “He stays.”

My chest loosened just slightly.

The Echoed One bowed her head. “Then he is permitted.”

Permitted.

As if I needed permission to stand beside my mate.

I swallowed the growl forming in my throat and focused on Evelyn instead. Her breathing steadied when I aligned my body with hers, our shoulders brushing, our hands locked together.

“You okay?” I murmured.

She nodded, eyes fixed on the Gate. “I think so.”

“You tell me if that changes.”

“I will.”

And she meant it.

The Gate pulsed again, brighter this time. A soft thrum radiated outward, brushing across our skin like heat from a distant fire. Evelyn inhaled sharply.

“They’re… moving,” she whispered, placing her free hand over her belly.

“The twins?”

She nodded. “Like they’re… answering something.”

My stomach knotted. “Or something’s calling them.”

Her eyes flicked to mine fear trying to surface, but she forced it down.

“Trevor. I think we’re supposed to go.”

“Then we go,” I said. “But I’m not letting anything separate us.”

Rowan stepped up beside us. “We’ll follow your lead. Whatever this Gate is, it’s responding to Evelyn’s bloodline, not ours.”

Jason grunted. “And if it tries to eat us?”

I didn’t look away from the Gate. “Then I tear it apart.”

Evelyn exhaled a quiet, shaky breath not fear, not amusement, something in between.

“Come on,” I said softly.

We stepped forward.

The first touch of the Gate’s light against my skin felt like plunging my hand into cold water. Sharp. Clean. A chill that dug into bone. Evelyn shivered, and I immediately moved closer, gripping her hand tighter.

“Trevor…” she whispered.

“I’m right here.”

The moment we crossed fully inside, the world changed.

Gone was the forest. Gone were the trees. Gone was the clearing.

We stood in a vast expanse of pale mist, stretching endlessly in all directions, the ground beneath us solid but too smooth to be stone, too warm to be earth. The air tasted different like minerals, like magic, like air that hadn’t been breathed in centuries.

Rowan appeared behind us first, his expression alert. Jason followed a heartbeat later.

But the Echoed One did not.

Her voice drifted through the mist instead.

“You stand in the Echo Chamber,” she said, though her form was nowhere to be seen. “Here, memories manifest. Truths take shape. And choices reveal themselves.”

Evelyn stiffened, clutching my hand.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

The mist rippled.

A figure began forming ahead of us slowly, as though carved from smoke. I stepped in front of Evelyn immediately, my body hardening on instinct.

“Trevor..." she started.

“No.” My voice was low, rough. “I don’t trust anything that hides in fog.”

The shape solidified.

My breath froze.

Rowan whispered, “Is that..."

It was a wolf.

Massive.
Luminous.
Not flesh, not ghost, something in between. Its fur shimmered like the Gate’s silver light. Its eyes glowed white.

It lowered its head to Evelyn.

She stepped slightly forward, still holding my hand, but I didn’t stop her this time. Something in the wolf’s posture respect, not aggression, made me reassess without lowering my guard.

“What is it?” she whispered.

The Echoed One’s voice answered from everywhere and nowhere.

“The First Alpha.”

My blood ran cold.

Jason swore under his breath. “That’s impossible.”

Rowan placed a steady hand on his arm. “Not here.”

I stared at the creature; massive, ancient, radiating a power that made the air itself vibrate.

“The First Alpha,” I repeated carefully, “has been dead for thousands of years.”

“Bodies die,” the Echoed One said, “but echoes endure.”

The wolf’s gaze lingered on Evelyn, the light in its eyes deepening.

Then it spoke.

Not with a voice.
With a presence.

“You carry what we lost.”

Evelyn’s breath hitched. “What do you mean?”

“The balance,” the wolf said. “The cycle. The bridge.”

It took a step closer silent, graceful, impossibly large. I stepped with Evelyn, never releasing her hand, my body angled between her and the creature.

The wolf’s gaze flicked to me.

“Protector,” it said.

My spine straightened. “Mate,” I corrected.

Its eyes glowed.

“There is no difference.”

For a moment, the mist shifted around us, curling like a breeze.

Then the wolf lowered its head further to Evelyn’s stomach.

The twins kicked. Hard.

Evelyn flinched. “Trevor..."

I pulled her closer, steadying her.

The wolf spoke again, its voice rolling through the chamber like thunder wrapped in silk.

“The children of the fractured moon will determine the fate of our kind.”

Evelyn trembled.

I felt my throat tighten.

Rowan whispered, “This is the prophecy. All of it.”

The wolf looked directly at me.

“You must choose which future they receive.”

Everything inside me went still.

“What?” I snarled. “Choose what for them?”

The wolf’s eyes dimmed. “Two paths. Two cycles. One full. One broken.”

My heart hammered.

Evelyn whispered, “What are the paths?”

The wolf turned its gaze toward the mist.

Two spirals of light unfurled, one silver, one dark.

And the wolf spoke.

“One child will inherit the power to rebuild.
The other…”

The mist pulsed with a dark, hungry tremor.

“…will inherit the power to destroy.”

Evelyn gasped.

My blood iced.

The wolf lifted its head.

“You must choose which is which.”

The chamber shook.

Evelyn’s hand tightened painfully around mine.

Trevor,
she whispered, voice breaking inside her chest,
what do we do?

I stared at the spirals of light silver and dark, feeling the weight of the world crushing my ribs.

And for the first time in my life…

I didn’t know.