Chapter 132 The Monster
Kira’s POV
Darkness.
It surrounded me. It wasn't the type of darkness that needs illumination..like literally.
This one was more chilling…like there was some king of evil lurking around me, gripping my heart with dread and fear.
I wasn’t running. I wasn’t even in my own body. I was floating behind everything like a ghost stuck in someone else’s nightmare, forced to watch but never able to touch or scream loud enough to change a single thing.
A pregnant woman burst through the moonlit forest, branches slapping her face and tearing at her long white dress like claws.
She was huge…belly round and heavy, one hand pressed tight against it as if she could shield the baby inside from the world.
Her breaths came in ragged, terrified gasps. Sweat poured down her neck. Behind her, a pack of wolves exploded out of the trees…massive, red-eyed monsters with foam dripping from their jaws and snarls that shook the ground like thunder.
Their eyes burned with pure hatred and the hunger to kill was unmistakable in the air.
They were gaining on her fast, paws pounding the dirt, closing the gap with every heartbeat.
“RUN!” I screamed at the top of my lungs from behind her, but no sound came out.
My throat moved, my chest burned, but nothing reached her.
I was invisible. Useless. Just a helpless spectator floating a few feet behind her back. “Please…they’re right behind you! Run!”
She stumbled over a thick root and crashed to the ground hard.
The impact jolted through me like I was the one who fell. Sharp pain exploded in my own stomach, so real I gasped and clutched at nothing.
She cried out…a broken, animal sound of pure terror…tears streaming down her dirt-streaked face.
“Get up!” I begged, voice cracking even though she couldn’t hear me. “Get up, please…they’re coming! Don’t stop!”
She pushed herself up on shaking arms, dress ripped and muddy, hair wild and tangled with leaves and blood from a cut somewhere on her body.
One hand never left her belly. She started running again, slower now, every step heavy and limping, but she kept going.
The wolves were so close I could smell their hot, rotten breath. Their snarls vibrated in my bones.
“Faster!” I shouted, floating right at her heels. Ifeltlikepicking herupand floating away with her. But I couldn't.
“They’re almost on you…run! Don't let them catch you, please!”
I didn't know why it hurts so much, didn't know why I even cared.
She couldn’t hear a single word. She just kept pushing forward, legs trembling, holding her stomach like it was the only thing left in the world that mattered.
Then more wolves burst out from the sides…bigger, deadlier, their claws shining silver under the moonlight like blades.
They slammed between the pregnant woman and her chasers. Teeth flashed. Bodies collided in a storm of fur and blood.
The new wolves tore into the attackers, ripping throats, snapping spines, fighting like they were protecting something sacred.
The pregnant woman ran harder, faster than I thought any heavily pregnant woman could move, disappearing deeper into the trees while the new wolves held the line.
I stopped chasing her. I stayed behind, hovering, watching the battle rage.
Something about those white wolves…the way they threw themselves between her and death without hesitation…pulled at me deep in my chest. Like I knew them. Like they were my people. Like I should be fighting beside them.
A loud crash exploded ahead… metal screeching against metal, followed by a woman’s scream so sharp it sliced straight through my soul.
“NO!” I yelled, racing forward again, heart hammering with terror.
Was she hit by a car? Is she dead?
A man screamed, sprinting past me…stark naked, muscles gleaming with sweat and blood, like he’d just shifted back from wolf form.
I caught a quick flash of his face, determined and fierce, but what stopped me cold wasn't the look of pure rage in his eyes… It was the mark on his back.
A black rose. Exactly like the one burned into my arm. Same dark petals. Same eerie glow.
Arrows rained down on him before he could reach take more steps forward. One slammed into his shoulder with a sick wet thunk. Another buried itself in his side. Three more punched through his back.
He buckled hard, dropping to his knees in the dirt, blood pouring down his skin in thick rivers. His face twisted in agony.
“NO!” I screamed, trying to run to him, but my feet wouldn’t touch the ground. I was still floating, still helpless.
Why? Who is doing this?
Then I saw him…Adrian…standimg beside a man with the same silver eyes as his.
But he didn't quite look like my Adrian. A younger version…maybe twelve? Or thirteen? His face looked harder, eyes colder and empty for a child of that age.
He stood on a ridge above the trees, bow drawn tight. He shot one final arrow and it hit the man square in the back and burst out through his chest in a spray of red.
I screamed in pure terror at the sight.
The man looked up…straight at me…even though I wasn’t really there.
His pitch-black eyes were filled with so much raw sadness it stole my breath. His lips moved, weak and broken.
“Come find me, child…”
I screamed again and eyes flew open.
I was back in the hotel bed, sheets tangled around my naked body, heart hammering so hard it felt like it would explode out of my chest.
Adrian’s arms were around me, warm and solid, pulling me close like he always did.
“Princess?” he murmured, voice sleepy but worried, tightening his hold.
I screamed again…loud, raw, terrified…and shoved him with every ounce of strength in my body.
He went flying. His back slammed into the far wall with a crack that shook the entire suite. He slid down, eyes wide with pure confusion, hair messy, looking at me like I’d lost my mind.
“Princess…what’s wrong?”
Right there, I didn’t see Adrian.
I saw a monster.
A cold-blooded killer.