Chapter 15 Fifteen
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Sara’s POV
The body was taken away. The snow was cleaned. The warriors cleared the area.
But the silence that followed wasn’t normal.
It felt like the pack was holding its breath.
Xenon didn’t speak as he walked me back toward the inner hall. His hand remained wrapped around my wrist, steady but tense. His steps were sharp, controlled, but something in his posture had changed.
His control wasn’t slipping.
It was cracking.
Kael walked behind us with Adrian and Ryker, all of them watching the shadows as if the Creed might step out at any second.
When we reached Xenon’s private wing, he pushed open the door and guided me inside. The room was dark, the warm light from the hall fading behind us.
He shut the door.
He didn’t move for a moment.
Neither did I.
His breathing was too slow. Too measured. His shoulders rose and fell in that controlled, dangerous way that meant his wolf was pressing hard beneath his skin.
“Xenon,” I said quietly.
He didn’t answer.
I stepped closer. “Talk to me.”
He finally lifted his eyes. They were darker than before, almost black around the edges.
“You do not touch anything the Creed leaves again,” he said. “Not cloth. Not bone. Not a message. Nothing.”
His voice wasn’t raised. It was low, firm, and final.
“I did not touch it,” I said.
“You looked at it,” he replied. “And your breathing changed. Your scent changed. They are getting to you.”
I swallowed hard. “It is not them. I am just scared.”
“You should be,” he said. “This is not a normal threat.”
He moved past me, pacing once across the room before stopping again. His hands clenched briefly at his sides.
“They are escalating faster than I predicted. They want you pushed to the edge.”
“Kael thinks my bloodline is waking,” I whispered.
Xenon turned sharply. “Your bloodline is not your enemy.”
“Then what is happening inside me,” I asked. “Because something feels wrong.”
He stepped toward me, slower this time, more careful. “Tell me.”
“When I saw the bone,” I said, “something inside me reacted. It felt like pressure. Like a reminder. But I did not understand it. It felt like panic but not from me.”
His eyes narrowed. “Not from you.”
“Yes,” I whispered. “It felt like someone else’s fear.”
Xenon froze.
The air in the room shifted.
Kael stepped forward from behind. “Blood memory.”
Xenon glared at him. “Stay back.”
Kael didn’t retreat. “That sensation is not unusual. Fear that is not yours. Pressure that does not belong to you. These are early signs.”
I stepped back slightly. My chest felt tight. “Early signs of what.”
Kael hesitated. Then said quietly, “Something inside you is waking.”
Xenon turned away from us both and pressed his palms against the wall as if grounding himself. His chest rose and fell slowly, too slowly, like he was keeping himself from shifting.
“This cannot happen now,” he muttered.
Kael approached me cautiously. “Sara. Think carefully. Before you came here, have you had moments of déjà vu. Sudden emotions that did not match the situation. Dreams that felt too real.”
I swallowed. “Yes. All of those.”
Xenon’s head snapped back toward me.
“When,” he demanded.
“Over the last year,” I said. “They were small things. Moments. I ignored them.”
“What kind of dreams,” Kael asked.
“Places I have never seen,” I said. “Voices I did not recognize. A forest with stones marked in strange patterns. A woman running. A child crying. None of it made sense.”
Kael looked at Xenon. “Alpha. This is not coincidence.”
Xenon stepped toward me, so fast Kael backed up instantly.
“Why did you not tell me this,” he asked. His voice shook. With anger. Or fear. I couldn’t tell.
“I did not think it mattered,” I said. “I thought they were nightmares.”
“They are not nightmares,” Kael said. “They are inherited memory fragments.”
Xenon spun toward him. “Stop saying that.”
Kael lowered his voice. “You cannot ignore the signs.”
Xenon faced me again, softer this time. “Sara. These dreams. Have you had them since arriving here.”
I hesitated. “Yes.”
He stiffened. “When.”
“The night you put me in this room,” I whispered. “I saw something. A shadow near the forest. A mark carved into a stone. And a voice saying I was late.”
Xenon’s jaw clenched. “Late for what.”
I shook my head. “I do not know.”
Kael exhaled. “The memories are bleeding into her waking mind. It is happening faster than expected.”
Xenon turned fully toward him. “If this bloodline wakes and she loses control for even a moment, what happens.”
Kael didn’t answer immediately.
“Kael,” Xenon said.
Kael’s expression was grim. “Then the Creed wins.”
Silence pressed into the room.
Xenon placed a hand on the back of my neck gently, grounding me. His touch wasn’t possession. It was steady, anchoring, the way someone would calm a wolf in distress.
“You are not losing control,” he said. “Not while I am here.”
I nodded, but my breathing was uneven.
Kael stepped forward. “We need the other half of the pendant.”
Xenon shook his head. “We do not use something that could hurt her.”
“We need it before the Creed finds it,” Kael insisted. “If they use it near her, it could force a full awakening.”
“What does that even mean,” I asked.
Kael hesitated. “It means you could access memories you were never meant to carry. Centuries’ worth. It could overwhelm your mind. Your wolf. Your identity.”
My knees weakened. “So I could lose myself.”
Xenon gripped my arm tightly. “You are not losing anything.”
Kael added, “Unless the Creed gets to you first.”
Xenon’s eyes went cold. “They will not.”
Before either of them could say more, the door opened sharply and Adrian stepped inside.
“Alpha,” he said. “We found tracks south of the border.”
Xenon straightened. “Creed.”
“No,” Adrian said. “A lone wolf. Injured. Bleeding heavily.”
“Who,” Xenon demanded.
“We do not know yet,” Adrian said. “But he is asking for Sara.”
My heart stilled. “For me.”
“Yes,” Adrian said. “By name.”
Xenon’s aura snapped like a blade. “Where is he.”
“Being brought into the healer wing now,” Adrian said. “He refused to speak to anyone else.”
Kael exchanged a dark look with Xenon. “This is no coincidence.”
Xenon turned to me. “You stay behind me at all times. Do you understand.”
I nodded.
His eyes softened a fraction. “Good.”
Ryker appeared at the door. “Alpha. The wolf is nearly here.”
Xenon took my hand again.
“Let’s go.”
Something inside me pulsed again.
Not fear.
Recognition.
Someone was coming.
Someone who knew my name before I ever knew theirs.
And as we walked toward the healer wing, my chest tightened with the strange sensation that this moment wasn’t new.
It was familiar.
As if I had already lived it in a memory that wasn’t mine.