OMEGA

CHAPTER SEVEN

WHISPERS IN THE DARK

AMARA'S POV|

I couldn’t sleep.

Not even for a moment.

The air in my room felt too thick, like it was wrapped in something invisible and ancient. The kind of silence that vibrated. The kind of quiet that came before something happened.

My skin was hot. My chest, tight.

And my wolf was pacing inside me, restless, feral, wild.

He’s here.

Kael.

The Alpha King. My second mate. Sleeping only a few doors away, and still I could feel him like a storm pressing against the walls. His presence wasn’t just near—it was everywhere. In the air. In my bones. In the ache that pulsed low in my stomach and crawled up into my chest like lightning.

I threw the blanket off.

Sweat clung to my skin, despite the coolness of the night. My shirt stuck to my back, and my heart was pounding so loud I was afraid someone might hear it.

My dreams had been full of fire.

Not the kind that burns homes.

The kind that awakens you.

Kael’s hands. His voice. His eyes—gold and molten and knowing.

He’d touched me in that dream. Not gently. Not cruelly either. Like I belonged to him.

And the terrifying part?

Some secret part of me… liked it.

I sat up and pressed my palms against my temples.

Get it together. You don’t need another mate. You don’t want one.

But the bond doesn’t care what I want.

It kept pulling.

The more I fought it, the more it clawed at me. My wolf was humming with it, vibrating just beneath my skin.

She wanted him.

And even worse?

She trusted him.

That terrified me more than anything else.

Because I’d trusted before.

And he—Lucien—had shattered me into pieces.

I wrapped my arms around my knees, rocking slightly as I tried to breathe through it.

In.

Out.

Steady.

But nothing about this night was steady. The bond was waking something inside me. Something wild. Something older than I understood. And I wasn’t ready for it.

A floorboard creaked outside.

My head snapped toward the door, my senses going razor sharp.

And then—like a ripple through the air—I felt it.

Him.

He was awake too.

The pull between us tightened like a thread yanked taut, and I knew—he felt it too. The restlessness. The heat. The gravity of a bond that neither of us had asked for, but couldn’t escape.

I stood.

Bare feet silent on the wooden floor, my fingers hesitated on the door handle. Every part of me screamed not to do it.

Don’t be weak again. Don’t open yourself up. Don’t let someone else close enough to ruin you.

But I wasn’t that broken little girl anymore.

I was the White Wolf.

And if the Goddess gave me a second mate… maybe it wasn’t a curse.

Maybe it was a warning.

I opened the door.

The hallway was dim, lit only by the flicker of a single candle near the stairs. And halfway down the corridor—

Kael.

Shirtless.

Golden skin bathed in shadow and moonlight. His broad shoulders tense. His eyes glowing faintly in the dark, trained on me the moment I stepped out.

He didn’t speak.

Neither did I.

We just stared—like the air between us might catch fire if we moved too quickly.

I couldn’t breathe.

Neither could he.

And then he whispered, voice low, rough, barely human—

“You felt it too.”

KAEL'S POV|

“You felt it too.”

The words left my mouth before I could stop them.

But I knew she had. I could see it in the way she froze, in the way her breath caught. Like the bond had just tightened around her throat the same way it had wrapped itself around mine.

Amara.

Gods, even her name burned.

She stood there in the moonlight, bare feet on the wood, her skin flushed like she’d been running through fire. And yet, she looked like ice.

White-hot contradiction.

Eyes like winter storms. Hair falling wild around her face. And underneath all of that… that power. That bloodline. I could feel it rolling off her in waves.

The White Wolf.

I’d heard stories. Hunted myths. But no one said the White Wolf would look like her.

No one said she’d smell like temptation wrapped in moonlight and sorrow.

She hadn’t answered me yet, but I could feel her heartbeat.

Fast.

Loud.

Syncing with mine like it had been waiting for this moment. For me.

The mate bond crackled between us, thick like a storm cloud. My wolf had gone quiet the second she opened that door. Not silent with fear. Silent like reverence.

Like she was a prayer.

And now, standing here with her staring at me like I’d just stepped out of her dreams…

I was the one losing control.

I wanted to move toward her. Close the space. Press my hands against the walls of her pain and rewrite everything Lucien had shattered.

But I didn’t.

Because I saw the war in her eyes.

The way she wanted to trust me—and hated herself for it.

“I don’t know what this is,” she said softly, finally. Her voice was hoarse, like she’d been screaming in her sleep. “I didn’t ask for you.”

“I didn’t ask for you either.”

Truth. Bitter and sharp. But not cruel.

Because the moment I saw her, the second that bond snapped into place—I knew. The Moon Goddess had done something irreversible.

Something fated.

And I wasn’t about to let it go.

“I just want to sleep,” she whispered, taking a shaky breath. “I want peace.”

“Then sleep,” I said. “I’ll stay.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

“Not in your bed,” I added quickly, jaw tightening. “Just… near. For security. For your wolf.”

Her gaze dropped to the floor. Then slowly, she nodded.

“Just tonight.”

Just tonight.

But we both knew it wouldn’t be.

I stepped back, keeping my hands at my sides, my wolf pacing with a low growl of need. I didn’t speak again. I didn’t move any closer.

But I stayed.

And when she finally closed her door and lay back down, I sat against the hallway wall—one door between us, but the bond so alive, it felt like she was right beside me.

I could hear her breathing.

Soft. Uneven.

And I closed my eyes.

Not as a warrior. Not as a king.

But as a mate.

A second chance, wrapped in scars and prophecy.

And I knew, even before I slept—

This wasn’t just another bond.

This was the beginning of everything.