“I…I was being chased…” she says breathlessly, and I frown.
“What do you mean you were being chased? You were right here, in this room. You're safe.”
“I saw it, Tyler!” she wails. “I saw it! It was so real!”
“I don't unders—”
The siren blaring through the speakers around the pack center cuts me off, and a shocked gasp leaves my lips as my eyes widen.
It's a signal at the border, and just then, Brutus calls out through the mind link, “Alpha Tyler! We have the rogue in our sights! We're giving chase down the east stretch of the lake!”
“I'm on my way!”I respond urgently, my attention turning back to Arianna. “Border Patrol is chasing a rogue out of the territory. Where's Noah?”
“He's at the nursery,” she responds tentatively, and I nod.
“Get Noah and hide where I told you to hide before, in my bunker. Got it?”
This time, Arianna appears too spooked to protest and nods fervently before peeling off her apron and rushing out through the back door. I follow closely behind, relieved to see her racing toward the nursery once she's outside.
My friends are still waiting outside, standing with their backs toward each other as they sniff the air and listen to the siren.
I quickly explain the situation to them, and they all agree to join me in chasing down the rogue. We've had enoughexperience fighting the merciless creatures during black ops, so it's not a lot to ask of them.
Members of the pack flash past as they rush to safety, and I stop Brynta just as she's about to leave the pack center.
“Take Luna Cecelia to my house and let her join Arianna and Noah in the bunker,” I ordered after a brief introduction. “You can stay there with them until we return.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Brynta nods and leads Cecelia to my house. My friends are ready to help me chase down the rogue when they shift into their wolf forms, and as soon as I take the lead in the chase by shifting too, there's a flicker of suspicion left ringing in my wolf mind.
Whatever just happened to Arianna right before the rogue was sighted on our borders is no coincidence at all. I have to find out what happened to her, but first, we need to deal with the rogue.
Chapter 17 - Arianna
My heart pounds with the panic that seems to settle in my throat like a lump lodged there, preventing me from saying a word to my son as I hold him tightly and rush to Tyler's house.
It's not the sighting of the terrifying rogue, but whatever happened to me in the pack center, and especially what I saw.
It was like one of those nightmares I've been having every night—being chased until I'm caught by the treacherous creature with yellowing teeth and darkening claws—but it was different this time. The creature shifted and revealed himself to be James, but that's when Noah appeared from behind me and called out to me.
James's smirk turned sinister, and he lunged for Noah then.
I snapped out of the vision just when Tyler shook my shoulders, and now, as I rush to his house, I can't stop thinking that what I experienced was a vision.
Like A.B. from the journal. Her visions were described clearly, how she'd often snap into a daze where she'd see things so vividly, it was as if she was living through them. Despite putting her gifts in the past when she met her true mate, her visions still came sometimes, and he described what she looked like on the outside when she had them.
Milky white eyes, and pale flesh as if she were seeing a ghost. During her visions, she couldn't see anyone in the physical plane, while she tapped into the future through a mystical realm that she couldn't control.
It's how she found out she was pregnant, and how she was able to tell what time her mate would be home, down to the second.
Is that what Tyler saw when he found me? Milky white eyes and pale skin?
I shudder when I think about it, still not wanting to believe that I could be like A.B. I don't trust that all these pieces seem to be tying together just to tell me that I'm special.
Tyler made it abundantly clear that I'm not.
I get inside the house just as pattering feet stop on the porch. I turn to find a heavily pregnant stranger holding onto Brynta, her breath coming out in hot pants.
“Brynta!” I exclaim, and she pulls the other woman inside after us, locking the door behind her.
