Chapter 125 A BAD DREAM
AMBER’S POV
I woke up with my heart racing, like I had been running for hours. The room was still dark, quiet in a way that felt wrong. I lay there for a moment, staring at the ceiling, waiting for the feeling to pass, it didn’t. The dream clung to me, heavy and stubborn, refusing to fade the way dreams usually do.
It hadn’t been violent, that was what unsettled me the most. There was no blood, no screams, no struggle. I hadn’t even been afraid in the usual sense. I had just been watching, stuck in place, aware that something important was happening without me. A presence filled the space around me, calm and sure, like it already knew how everything would end.
I sat up and pressed my palms into the mattress. My hands were shaking even as my chest felt tight, as if the air in the room had grown thinner. I took a slow breath, then another, forcing myself to stay grounded.
“This is just a dream,” I whispered, though I didn’t believe it.
I got out of bed and walked to the window. The floor was cold beneath my feet, and I welcomed it. Outside, the pack grounds were peaceful. Guards moved along their usual paths, a few wolves were already awake, laughing quietly, unburdened. Everything looked exactly the way it should.
That was what scared me. Since the merge, peace had settled over the Blood Spirit pack like a promise. We had earned it because we had bled for it. For the first time in a long while, I had let myself imagine a future that wasn’t shaped by constant fear.
The dream felt like a warning against that hope.
I rested my forehead against the glass and closed my eyes. In the dream, I hadn’t seen a face clearly, but I remembered the voice because it was calm and controlled, it wasn’t threatening. It didn’t rush. It simply existed, confident that time was on its side.
I had learned to trust my instincts long ago. They had saved me more times than I could count, this feeling was not panic. It was a certainty and a quiet, steady knowing that something unseen had shifted.
The peace we had now felt thin, like it could tear with very little effort.
I straightened and stepped back from the window. As Luna, I couldn’t afford to let fear show. The pack looked to me for strength and for reassurance but hiding fear didn’t mean ignoring it. If something was coming, I needed to be ready. Whatever this was, it was waiting and I hated how patient it felt.
I didn’t tell Derek right away. I needed to be sure the feeling wouldn’t disappear with daylight. It followed me as I dressed, as I walked through the halls, as I greeted pack members who smiled at me with easy confidence. Everyone felt safe and everyone believed the worst was behind us.
That belief made my chest ache. I found Derek later in the common hall speaking with a few guards. He turned the moment he sensed me, he always did. One look at my face, and his expression shifted.
“You’re up early,” he said.
“I didn’t really sleep,” I replied.
He dismissed the guards without hesitation and stepped closer. “Another dream?”
“Yes,” I said. “But this one feels different.”
We walked together in silence for a while. The bond between us was steady and warm, grounding me, but it couldn’t erase the unease sitting deep in my gut.
“There was no clear danger,” I said finally. “No attack, just the feeling that someone is moving things around us without us knowing… like very soon this little peace we had gathered so much in such a little time to enjoy was going to shatter in our face. I have no idea what this means but it is there, slowly rising to the surface.”
Derek stopped and faced me. “You think someone is planning something against us?”
“I think they already are,” I said. “And they’re taking their time because from what I saw in the dream, the person is very patient, not wanting to spook us but Derek, something is definitely going on and the earlier we know what it is, the better for us.”
He searched my face, looking for uncertainty. He didn’t find any even as my certainty surprised even me.
“We’re stronger now,” he said carefully. “We’ve prepared for threats.”
“That’s what worries me,” I replied. “This doesn’t feel like a direct threat, it feels like manipulation and like someone is counting on us to relax.”
He was quiet for a moment, then reached for my hands, holding them firmly. “We won’t ignore this,” he said.
“If your instincts are warning you, we listen because that’s what we know how to do and this time around, I won’t lose you. I made a lot of that mistake in the past, doing things without your knowledge and treating you like you didn’t exist. I’m done doing that and this time around, I’m going to make sure of that so whatever it is that’s going on, Amber you can tell me because I’ll always be here to listen.” He said.
I nodded, grateful for his trust, even though the feeling didn’t ease. The dream hadn’t shown me a name or a face, it showed me intent. Control without force and power without noise.
As we stood there, surrounded by our pack, I realized what frightened me most. Whatever was coming didn’t need chaos. It needed calm and it needed us to believe we were finally safe. I had a feeling that this was the way it knew how to deal with us, I had seen it in so many forms and shapes but this time around, this was certified, like it knew we stood no chance against it.
I squeezed Derek’s hands and took a steady breath. Peace, I knew now, was never proof that danger was gone.
Sometimes, it was just the pause before someone decided to break it.
THEY ARE AT WAR