Chapter 124 THE WOMAN IN MY DREAM
SEBASTIAN’S POV
Darkness comes first.
Not the kind that suffocates me, but the kind that makes me float.
It's almost like I'm weightless and just floating around.
I don’t remember when I fell asleep.
I don’t remember anything after the whole confrontation in the market square. One thing I'm being led away from it all by Alpha Dax and the next?
I'm out cold.
In this place I've found myself in, nothing hurts at all.
I feel like a baby floating through everything.
The sharp, constant pressure that has been building inside me for days is no longer there.
For once… I can actually breathe.
I exhale slowly and the darkness shifts . Its different soft colours as it suddenly doesn't feel empty anymore.
It feels… warm.
Like being wrapped in the softest silk blankets.
I feel so safe.
My brows furrow faintly.
Safe?
Since when have I ever felt safe?
The thought barely finishes forming before something changes and I see something.
A presence. I feel its subtle arrival at first like a ripple across still water.
Then, it grows clearer and stronger. It's no longer a white blurry figure.
I’m not alone.
My body tenses instinctively, awareness snapping into place, even here. That is wherever here is.
And then I start to see her.
She doesn’t appear all at once now, it's a gradual process like light bleeding into darkness.
First, the outline of her, then the shape and then finally all of her.
A woman.
No, not just a woman, it's something more. She’s ethereally beautiful, and not in the way most people are.
I've never seen something like this.
This is something else entirely and it doesn’t make any sense.
Her presence alone feels like standing too close to fire, warm and dangerous if you linger too long.
It's… wrong. I should not be here.
Her eyes meet mine and she smiles a soft gentle and familiar smile like she knows me or like she has always known me.
“Sebastian,” she says.
My name sounds so… different when she says it.
It's lighter and more peaceful coming from her.
I don’t respond immediately, I just watch her suspiciously instead.
I'm trying to be careful here because nothing about this feels normal.
Nothing about her feels normal.
“I know you’ve been through a lot,” she continues, her voice calm and soothing. “More than you should have.”
I frown slightly. Wow what an understatement.
Still, I don’t speak.
I don’t trust this and if anything I don't trust her.
But then, something strange happens as the tension in my body starts to ease not by a choice of mine it just… happens.
Like something inside me is loosening against my will.
“You’re tired,” she says softly.
And I…
I actually nod.
The movement surprises me.
Why did I do that?
“I can feel it, your pain,” she continues. “All of it.”
My chest tightens as she takes a step closer to me.
Before I can stop it or think of what I'm actually doing, my mouth opens and the words start coming out.
“They’re gone.”
My voice sounds distant like it doesn’t belong to me.
“My parents… well they died.”
Her expression softens and that only makes it worse because I keep talking.
“I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”
My hands curl slightly at my sides.
“There was so much I wanted to say. So much I didn’t understand.”
I swallow as the pressure builds up inside of me. The same panicking pressure that comes when I think of my family.
“And now everything is just… wrong.”
The words come out faster and messier.
“The pack… Ragnar… the way he looks at me–like I’m something dangerous. Like I'm something he's just waiting to get rid of.”
My breathing picks up.
“It’s suffocating.”
The word breaks out of me before I can stop it.
“It feels like I can’t breathe anymore.”
I freeze.
It's like a switch flipped inside and I suddenly became aware of my surroundings.
What am I doing here? Why was I saying all of that?
My eyes snap up to her, suspicion crashing back in full force as my body tenses with the earlier calm shattering like glass.
“…Who are you?” I ask with suspicion and wary.
The question comes out sharp and demanding but her smile doesn’t fade.
If anything, it deepens to a knowing one.
Like she expected and she’s been waiting for this.
For me to catch up or something.
I narrow my eyes slightly.
“I don’t just… talk like that,” I continue. “Not to strangers.”
She tilts her head slightly.
“Well you’re not talking to a stranger.”
That only makes my suspicion grow as I let out a short laugh.
“Oh, really?” I say. “Because the only one who could claim anything close to that to me would be the Moon Goddess.”
The words slip out easily.
“She’s the only one who made me, so unless you’re–”
I stopped mid sentence because of her expression.
That smile of hers changed into a big silly grin as she nodded.
“Well you've always been one of my smartest children.”
My chest tightens suddenly, my silly joke doesn’t feel like a joke anymore.
I stare at her for longer this time.
From the way she stands to the way everything around her just seems to bend to accommodate her.
It was as if reality itself was adjusting to her very presence and something in me instinctively recognized her.
My body lowers slightly, the urge to bow rising without my permission.
“No,” she says gently.
The word stops me instantly.
“You don’t need to do all that.”
I freeze as her smile softens again.
“It’s nothing,” she continues. “Truly. I just wanted to see you.”
My brows knit together in confusion.
“See me?” I echo.
She nods.
“Yes. Your situation…” she pauses slightly, as if choosing her words carefully, “is… rather complicated.”
That’s one way to put it.
“And your bond with Ragnar,” she adds, her gaze sharpening just a fraction, “as well as the surrounding packs, especially with the Alphas…”
She exhales softly.
“…is also concerning.”
“To you?” I ask slowly as my chest tightens.
There’s something about the way she says it that doesn’t sit right.
Her eyes flicker slightly.
“Yes,” she says. “Even to me.”
“And I did not anticipate this outcome,” she continues. “Not like this. Not… after I paired you.”
The words echo strangely in my mind.
My heart stutters.
“You… paired us?” I ask.
She doesn’t answer immediately and that alone is enough to raise every alarm in my body.
But I don’t press that, not yet.
There’s something else I would like to know. Something more important and this is the only opportunity I would ever get to ask her.
“What about Alisander?”
The question comes out quickly and directly.
Her reaction is immediate and subtle at the same time.
But it's still there, I see a flicker in her eyes before it's gone.
“Who is Alisander?” she asks.