The Beta's Heart

26. Flight or Fight

Author's Note: FYI, if you read Posy, this is when Lark smells "Burnt Oil Man" after the royal coronation. I only wrote this scene because I wanted to see what Peri would do the first time Ty had a nightmare. Does it add to the story or not? Thanks for the feedback!

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Tyler

Once again, I'm running through the woods, the moon above casting a cold, silvery light that barely cuts through the oppressive darkness. The trees loom like twisted sentinels, their gnarled branches clawing at the air as I sprint past them. My breath comes in ragged, panicked gasps, each exhale a plume of mist. The crunch of dead leaves underfoot echoes like an approaching army, relentless and unforgiving.

"Run, Tyler. Run while you still can!" My father's voice pierces through the forest's eerie silence, harsh and taunting.

He's somewhere behind me, but I don't dare look back. The memory of the silver knife flashes through my mind, its cruel gleam cutting through the darkness with agonizing clarity. It had sliced through my flesh, each cut a burning line of agony, my screams swallowed by the night.

No matter how fast I run, I can't escape the feeling that I'm being dragged back to that moment, where time stretches and distorts into an endless loop of terror. The pain from the knife mingles with the fear of the unknown, a brutal cocktail that makes me stumble and fall.

Suddenly, the scene shifts, warping into a new horror that I never experienced before. I'm no longer running from my father, but from an undefined terror, a shadow that stinks like oil burning in a pan. Its presence is suffocating, a dark cloud squeezing the breath from my lungs. I flail blindly through the forest, my limbs heavy and uncoordinated, as my heart hammers in my chest. My throat is raw, my mouth dry as sand.

The terror closes in, its jagged edges scraping against my skin, sending shivers of ice through my veins. I can feel its hunger, its need to devour me, to pull me into its abyss. In a final, frantic burst of energy, I lash out blindly, my arm striking something soft. The world tilts violently as I struggle, then the sudden, sharp jolt of ice-cold water snaps my eyes open—

I gasped and sat up, disoriented and trembling. Peri stood next me, her eyes wide with worry and her hands on my shoulders.

"It's okay." Her voice was shaking as much as my whole body. "You're safe now. It was just a nightmare."

Reality slowly filtered back in, and I realized I was in our bed, not the forest. The terror was gone, but its echoes lingered in my mind. My face was all wet, so I knew she'd thrown a glass of water on me to wake me up.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, my voice rough and broken. "I didn't mean to scare you."

She hugged me tightly, her warmth a stark contrast to the cold of the nightmare.

"It's okay," she said. "I'm here. You're safe."

I clung to her, trying to ground myself in the present. The nightmare had been too real, too vivid. I could still feel the phantom pain of the knife, the terror of being chased, but my mate's presence helped soothe the lingering fear.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She pulled back slightly, looking into my eyes.

"Not now." I shook my head, the memories too raw to touch at the moment. "Maybe later."

"Whenever you're ready," she replied. "I'll listen anytime."

As we lay back down, I held onto her, letting her warmth comfort me, until I realized that my nightmare had taken an unexpected shift into a world of terror that was not my own.