Chapter 7: The Secret Heir
1377 Words
Echo's POV
I didn't go to the library.
At exactly 11:17 PM, my phone buzzed.
The same message.
The same five words.
Meet me. Midnight. Library.
In Loop One, I'd stared at the screen for ten minutes.
My heart racing.
My hands shaking.
Completely unaware my life was about to fall apart.
This time, I already knew.
I knew what waited inside that library.
The prophecy.
The treaty.
The impossible choice.
The road that had led us to the Nullification Ritual.
The beginning of everything.
I stared at the message.
Then locked my phone.
And didn't answer.
My pulse thundered.
It felt wrong.
Terrifying.
Like stepping off a cliff.
But that was the point.
I couldn't survive by repeating the same choices.
Loop One Echo followed the path.
Loop One Echo vanished.
I wasn't her anymore.
A second later my phone buzzed again.
Echo?
My throat tightened.
Kieran.
I could practically hear his voice.
Confused.
Worried.
Already trying to find me.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
Every instinct screamed to answer.
To run to him.
To tell him everything.
About the loop.
About the baby.
About the Hawthorne tree.
About vanishing.
About the way he screamed when he told me to run.
But I couldn't.
Not yet.
Because the one thing I'd learned from vanishing was simple:
Knowledge was power.
And right now—
I was the only person who had any.
---
The next morning, I woke before sunrise.
For several seconds I lay completely still.
Waiting.
Listening.
Half expecting time to reset again.
It didn't.
The world remained exactly where I'd left it.
One day later.
A new day.
A changed day.
My first victory.
Tiny.
But real.
I sat up slowly.
Then reached for the notebook hidden beneath my mattress.
The notebook didn't exist in Loop One.
I created it last night.
Page One contained a single heading:
THINGS I KNOW
Below it:
I'm pregnant.
The baby is approximately seven weeks old.
The Council knows about the Hawthorne Prophecy.
Kieran is being forced into a treaty with Vivienne Crowe.
The Council fears the baby.
I vanished in the white light.
Kieran stayed behind to stop the Council while I ran.
My hand trembled slightly.
Then I added another line.
Nobody knows about the baby yet.
That one mattered most.
Because suddenly I understood something important.
The prophecy wasn't active because I was pregnant.
The prophecy became dangerous when the Council suspected I was pregnant.
It became dangerous because the Council believed they understood it.
Knowledge created consequences.
Secrets created opportunities.
For now, the baby remained mine.
Mine alone.
Not the Council's.
Not the Crowes'.
Not even Kieran's.
The thought hurt.
But it was necessary.
At least for now.
---
The Academy looked exactly the same.
Students flooded the pathways.
Teachers shouted at late arrivals.
Warriors argued near the training fields.
Life continued.
Normal.
Ordinary.
Completely unaware that fate had already broken once.
I spotted Kieran almost immediately.
Because of course I did.
I always found him.
And apparently he found me too.
His head snapped up.
Golden eyes locking onto mine.
Relief flashed across his face.
Followed immediately by confusion.
Because yesterday I'd ignored him.
Ignored the library.
Ignored everything.
Something I'd never done before.
He started toward me.
Determined.
Focused.
Dangerous.
My stomach fluttered.
Not because I was nervous.
Because I remembered.
I remembered loving him.
I remembered losing him.
And somehow—
I loved him more now.
Which was horribly unfair.
"Echo."
I stopped walking.
His voice sounded rough.
Like he hadn't slept.
Well.
Neither had I.
"Kieran."
His eyes searched my face.
Looking for answers.
Finding none.
"You didn't come."
Straight to the point.
Very Alpha of him.
I crossed my arms.
"You noticed?"
His jaw tightened.
"Don't do that."
"Do what?"
"Act like it didn't matter."
My heart squeezed painfully.
Because it mattered.
It mattered so much.
But I couldn't tell him why.
So instead I shrugged.
"I was tired."
Lie.
Terrible lie.
He knew it.
I knew it.
Neither of us said anything.
The silence stretched.
Then his expression changed.
Softer.
Concerned.
"What's wrong?"
Everything.
Absolutely everything.
I almost laughed.
Instead I shook my head.
"Nothing."
His eyes narrowed.
Apparently I inherited his lying skills.
Wonderful.
---
By lunch, Echo had confirmed something.
The timeline wasn't fixed.
Small things changed.
Conversations shifted.
People stood in different places.
Teachers arrived at slightly different times.
The future wasn't a railroad track.
It was a river.
Which meant it could be redirected.
That realization felt like breathing for the first time.
Because if small things could change—
big things could too.
Including the Nullification Ritual.
Especially the Nullification Ritual.
---
The real surprise came after school.
Elder Voss was waiting outside the Academy gates.
The sight of him nearly stopped my heart.
In Loop One, he hadn't approached me until much later.
Now he stood leaning against a stone pillar.
Watching.
Waiting.
For me.
Every survival instinct I possessed woke up instantly.
Danger.
Danger.
Danger.
Yet he wasn't looking at me the way he had before.
There was no suspicion.
No hostility.
No sign of the Nullification Order.
No pity.
Instead—
he looked confused.
As if he'd noticed something didn't fit.
The feeling sent chills down my spine.
Did he know?
No.
Impossible.
Then why was he here?
"Miss Hawthorne."
I stopped.
Carefully.
"Yes?"
His eyes studied me.
Far too closely.
"You've been avoiding Alpha Blackthorn."
My pulse jumped.
That wasn't the statement I'd expected.
"What does that have to do with you? Elder Voss"
The corner of his mouth twitched.
Almost a smile.
Almost.
"Nothing."
Liar.
Even worse than Kieran.
His gaze lingered another moment.
Then he said something that made my blood freeze.
"Sometimes changing your path changes more than you intended."
My heart nearly stopped.
Did he know something was wrong with me?
Was he testing me?
I couldn't tell.
His expression revealed nothing.
Ancient wolf.
Ancient secrets.
Ancient games.
Then he simply walked away.
Leaving me standing there.
Shaken.
Confused.
And suddenly very aware that Elder Voss might be far more important than I'd realized.
---
That night I couldn't sleep.
Again.
The notebook sat open across my bed.
More names filled the pages now.
Vivienne Crowe.
Elder Voss.
General Crowe.
The Council.
The Hawthorne Prophecy.
Every clue.
Every memory.
Every possibility.
I needed answers.
And answers required information.
Which meant hiding wasn't enough anymore.
I needed to investigate.
The realization settled over me slowly.
I wasn't trying to survive anymore.
I was trying to understand why the Nullification Ritual had rewritten time.
My nullification ritual.
And every clue pointed toward one person.
Vivienne.
The silver-haired girl hadn't even arrived yet.
Yet somehow she was already at the center of everything.
The treaty.
The prophecy.
The Council.
My vanishing.
Too many coincidences.
Far too many.
A cold certainty settled into my bones.
Vivienne Crowe wasn't reacting to events.
She was creating them.
Which meant the next time I saw her
I'd be ready.
---
Near midnight, I stood before my bedroom mirror.
One hand resting over my stomach.
Still flat.
Still hidden.
Still secret.
A tiny life.
A future Alpha.
A child powerful enough to change history.
Worth looping through time for.
My son.
The thought came instinctively.
A strange certainty.
Maybe mother's intuition.
Maybe hope.
Maybe something deeper.
Either way—
I smiled.
The first real smile since waking up.
"You're still here."
The whisper felt sacred.
The baby couldn't answer.
But a tiny flutter answered. Real. Mine.
Obviously.
But somehow I felt less alone.
Less broken.
Less afraid.
Because no matter how many times time reset—
no matter how many times fate tried to destroy everything.
I'll keep bringing him back.
I pressed my palm against my stomach.
Gentle.
Protective.
Determined.
"They don't know about you."
The secret felt powerful.
Dangerous.
Perfect.
For now the future Alpha heir existed only in my heart.
Hidden from the Council.
Hidden from the Crowes.
Hidden from fate itself.
And I intended to keep it that way.
Outside, thunder rolled across the mountains.
A storm approaching.
Another one.
But this time, I wasn't the girl waiting helplessly for disaster.
I remembered.
I knew what was coming.
And for the first time
I was preparing to change fate.
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