Chapter 3

Elena's POV:

I shot upright in bed, gasping for air, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. My knees ached with a phantom pain, a ghostly memory of the crushing force from the dream. I instinctively touched my cheek, half-expecting to feel the sticky residue of blood, the rough scrape of the Lycan's tongue.

Faint morning light filtered through the blinds, illuminating the familiar posters on my bedroom wall. I was back. Back in my small apartment near the university, safe.

The door flew open, and my best friend, Blair Hale, rushed in, her face a mask of concern. "Ellie? Another one?"

She stood there in a pair of ridiculous cupcake-print pajama pants, a textbook clutched in one hand. She must have heard me cry out. For five years, she'd been my anchor, my guardian, the one person who knew about the nightmares that plagued me.

Seeing her worried face, the tension that had coiled in my spine finally released. My eyes burned with unshed tears.

Blair was by my side in an instant, her arms wrapping around me in a familiar, comforting hug. She gently rubbed my back. "It's okay. I'm here. You're safe."

I buried my face in her shoulder, my body still shaking with the aftershocks of the dream. She pulled away and handed me the glass of water she always kept on my nightstand. I drank it down, the cool liquid soothing my raw throat.

"It was... more real this time," I said, my voice hoarse.

Blair's brow furrowed. "The same Alpha? The one who chases you?"

I nodded, swallowing hard. "He... he changed, Blair. He turned into a Lycan. A huge, black Lycan."

Her expression grew serious. She knew what a Lycan represented in our world-power on a scale most of us could barely comprehend. I described the brutal slaughter, the blood, and finally, the suffocating command to kneel. By the end, my voice was trembling again.

Blair listened intently, her hand stroking my hair in a soothing rhythm. When I finished, she was quiet for a long moment.

"Ellie, listen to me," she said softly, her voice full of practiced calm. "It's just a dream. You've been away from the pack for too long. Lyra is getting restless, feeling weak and disconnected."

She continued, laying out the theory we had pieced together over the years. "So your subconscious has created this... this ultimate Alpha figure. He represents everything you're afraid of-being dominated, controlled. But he also represents the power and protection you subconsciously crave."

It was our most logical explanation. A cocktail of PTSD from whatever had driven me from home and the instability of a wolf separated from her pack. It made sense. It had to make sense. But the feeling of his touch, the spark... it had felt too real.

"But he knew my name," I whispered, the detail still snagging in my mind.

"It's your dream, Ellie," Blair reasoned gently. "Of course he knows your name. You created him."

I had no counterargument. I fell silent, staring at my hands.

Blair looked at my pale, haunted face, her own full of sympathy. "You can't go on like this."

She stood up and walked to the window, pulling the curtains wide. Bright morning sun flooded the room, making me squint.

"Sunlight helps," she said, "but it can't heal what's wrong with your spirit, Ellie."

She turned back to me, her expression more serious than I had ever seen it. She took a deep breath, steeling herself.

"This summer, we have to go back. Back to the pack."

My body went rigid. The air left my lungs.

"No." The word was out of my mouth before I even thought it, a raw, reflexive denial.

Blair came back to the bed and took my hands, her grip firm and resolute. "You have to. For your own sake. And for Lyra's."