The Last of White Dawn

Chapter 26: Birthday Morning

"Lexi!" A deep voice shouts from somewhere in the distance. There's a tremble on the edge of their call, desperation.

Even though my surroundings are completely black, I move toward the voice, listening carefully. I can hear stunted and trembling breaths, shallow and fast. A faint but strong heartbeat just beyond, where I can't sense anything. I reach my hand out and press it against a cold stone wall, slightly damp from the heavy air around me.

"She's not coming." I stop dead in my tracks, straining my ears again in the direction of the voices. "Your wolf is gone. She's fled to the East. She thinks you are dead." The voice is low, nearly a whisper, filled with malice and taunting. I wish I could say I didn't recognize it.

Rushing now toward the voice I remember from the crash and the desperate call of my brother; I stumble over my own two feet in the darkness. I just barely keep the squeak from escaping my lips as I hit the hard stone floor hands first. There is a barely visible light just to my left like the flickering of a candle. The smell of rust, sweat, and silver makes my eyes water as I try to see down the dark staircase.

"She'll come back for me," a whimper clearly meant to be a growl comes from my brother.

"She doesn't know you're alive. And, even if she did, you think we would let her take you? You're the key to the wolven power. The last bit of knowledge we need to destroy you once and for all."

"I won't help you."

"You won't have a choice," Darren laughs cruelly. "Your change will turn you against the wolves, just like the rest of us."

Before I can crawl to the doorway in front of me, a voice echoes through my mind and my body shakes violently without my consent. I felt the coolness of the tiles and the wretchedness of the smell fading from my senses. The world around me starts to blur around the edges, sneaking inward until it darkens.

"No!" I shoot up from my position in the bed as I meet Seb's concerned face.

"Lexi," he calls to me as his hand reaches out to soothe my messy hair down against my head. "I'm here. What's wrong? Talk to me."

I press the palms of my hands against my eyes and try to take deep breaths to calm the panic and anger rising in my blood. What the fuck was that? Was that real? Was it just a reaction to joining the pack and Ark's reaction to me last night? Or is Tyran in danger? And why the hell did Seb wake me?

With one more long exhale I open my eyes and meet Seb's dark ones staring at me, filled with concern. "I had a bad dream," I mutter shortly.

"Yeah, I know; you were panting and whimpering. What happened?"

I pull my bottom lip between my teeth and contemplate if I want to tell him what I saw. Something about it feels extremely private; and maybe a bit foolish because it felt so real but I can't prove anything. "I was just reliving my brother's death and the loss of my pack."

He sighs and pulls me into his warm chest, wrapping his strong arms around me and squeezing me tightly against him. "I'm so sorry Lexi. I know it hurts."

I know he would understand, if I were telling the truth. I sigh and inhale the sweetness and saltiness of his sweaty skin forcing my muscles to relax further into him. "Do you want to go back to sleep?" His breath fans across my hair as he inhales the scent of my own nightmare-induced sweat mixed with the strawberry shampoo Celine had left behind the day before.

"What time is it?" I try to twist myself over him to see the clock on his side of the bed but he catches me halfway through my acrobatics and smiles with a shit-eating grin. "Oh god, that good, is it?"