The Alpha's Omega Mate-Chapter 145: Nightmares.

~Dahlia’s POV~

"Mommy, it hurts." Amara choked out a sob as she stared up at me confusedly while I, on the other hand, could only wail uncontrollably, shaking at the sight of my dying daughter.

Only moments ago, I’d been running through the garden, picking up Dahlias because my father said she wanted a bouquet of one. I’d even almost filled the bouquet when her shrill scream broke through the silent air, striking deep into my bones.

My body trembled, a tremor I could barely hold in wracked my entire body.

I do not know how had struck her or how this had come to be but one minute, my daughter had been fine. One minute, she’d been cheering me on, fueling my maniacal desire to get her her desired bouquet.

But all of that now was a story for the past.

Even the flowers now were forgotten on the floor, some of them drenched in her blood.

Tears streaked down my eyes uncontrollably, my heart thumping faster with each ooze of blood seeping out of her.

My lips shook, and so did my hands, but I managed to bring them to her face. I managed to wipe off the sheen of sweat on her forehead, and shove off the matted hair on her face.

My voice was nothing but a whisper when I finally managed to speak. I croaked out; "Baby, stay with me."

"I can not, mommy." Amara answered quickly— too quickly. "My stomach hurts, my legs too. I want to sleep."

As soon as I heard those words, my heart picked up speed. I tapped on her face desperately, ignoring the way that action smeared more blood on her beautiful porcelain skin. "Don’t sleep. Keep your eyes on me. Mommy will heal you!"

But I couldn’t heal her.

By the gods, I tried. I tried hard. I couldn’t do nothing, but could only watch as her eyes fluttered shut, and as her body trembled so much, I feared she would convulse violently.

"Mommy, help me!" She cried, the desperation I felt seeping into her voice. "It hurts!"

I cried so hard that my eyes began to burn, but that didn’t deter me from trying harder, for searching for that dark intense power I always felt simmering just beneath my skin.

But no matter how hard I tried, I failed.

My daughter was dying, I had no help.

I screamed at the top of my lungs, my head tipping back as I tried at the heavens. The moon goddess had long abandoned me so it was no surprise when nothing happened, instead the sky cracked, the sound of thunder tore through the still air, and the heavens poured down torrents of rain on us with vengeance.

"Please... pleasepleasepleaseplease!" I cried out as Amara’s eyes slowly began to droop... as she slowly began to appear faint.

I was however snapped out of my trance when I felt a shadow crawled behind me. It was dark. It made the hairs at the back of my neck stand on end too, but because I was desperate, I turned to it, crying; "Please help me!" I sobbed. "My daughter is dying!"

The figure being me laughed so loud, her voice momentarily droned out the sound of the rain hitting the wet soil.

Her voice was high pitched, cold. Lifeless. She snarled; "I cannot help you!"

"Why?" I sobbed, my heart breaking into a million pieces.

The figure shrugged— or so I thought when I noticed the slight bumping of its shoulders. "What did you think will happen to her when you brought her here?"

"Huh?"

"Were you she would be safe when you literally by yourself, brought her to the lion’s den?"

I frowned. "I don’t understand."

But she didn’t answer. She simply clucked her serpent-like tongue at me. "It’s too late, Dahlia. There’s nothing you can do to save her. Let her go."

"No!" I screamed, shaking my head vehemently. "She’s not dying. She cannot die."

"Then look at her." She drawled.

For some reason, I felt like I was in a trance, I slowly turned to look at her—my baby— and holyfuckingredmoon, she wasn’t moving, she wasn’t breathing. She wasn’t... oh, no no no no!

Her usually shiny eyes were staring straight at me, the green in them now faded into something that looked ashen. That looked lifeless. That looked dead.

The breath in my lungs whooshed out of me in one force exhale and by the gods, my heart felt like it had been shattered into a million pieces.

My baby... my child. She was gone. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

She was dead.

—

"No!" I screamed, peeling my eyes open with a start. I panted shakily, my eyes darting around the dark room as my body shook with barely contained fright.

To my right, Amara lay unmoving and for a minute, I panicked because only a few minutes ago—in my dream— I’d seen her unmoving like that. She had been breathless, cold, her pale face staring at me with regret. Her fiery red hair too had lost its spark, and the scream that had been wrenched out of me had been the reason I woke up with a start.

I slowly crept up to her to place two of my fingers just underneath her nostrils.. and Hades, at first I felt nothing. A shudder ran through me at the thought of my nightmare coming to fruition and frantically, I shook at her shoulders, prying her awake.

Amara frowned. "Mommy?"

Her voice was like a balm to my frayed nerves, her sleep-filled eyes like the oxygen I’d been so scared to take in seconds ago.

"Thank the goddess!" I exclaimed, letting out a sigh of relief, and blissfully ignoring the confusion in her eyes. I then kissed her hair before patting the bed softly. "Go to bed, baby." I whispered in a soft voice. "Mommy had a bad dream."

Amara seemed confused for a moment. She stared at me as if seeing me for the first time; But just when I had begun to prepare myself for her usual string of prying questions, she nodded.

"Okay." She muttered; And with that, she laid back on her side of the bed, her beautiful green eyes fluttering shut slowly as if she’d been scared to go back to sleep.

For a few minutes, I watched her slip back into sleep, and whilst I did, I occasionally darted my fingers under her nostrils, checking to see if her warm breath would fan my skin, and whenever it did, I’d sigh. I’d even seldom check her pulse, coughing to see if I would feel something. And I always did.

Gosh, I was that paranoid.

Slipping out of bed, I draped my night dress tighter around my body and slipped out of the room. It was still well into midnight, and for that reason, a lot of people were still asleep, plunging the entire house into a stifling silence.

I slithered through the house quietly, and as soon as I arrived downstairs, my eyes of their own accord, darted to the room housing Elodie, Kai’s comatose sister, and as soon as I thought about her, the hairs on my skin stood on end again.

There’s something dark about her... something that screamed at me to run in the opposite direction.

I shook my head at these eerie thoughts plaguing my mind, deciding to ignore the shivers I got from merely thinking about her and about the dream I’d just awoke from.

I managed to successfully convince myself that I was just being paranoid by the time I stepped out of the house into the night air, and I sighed deeply, gulping in air greedily like a fish that had been recently brought out of water and placed back into it.

For the first time since I began to shift, I shifted with ease.

My large silver-furred paws pointed against the soil as I made my way thru the forest, and hell, I do not know how long I ran for in a bid to clear my fuzzy mind, but by the time I stopped, I was far away from the pack— too far that I began to panic, thinking that I may have slipped back into Shadowfang pack.

However, the surrounding environment looked nothing like I have seen before. It was eerily quiet here and it made me jittery for some reason.

The furs lining my spine spiked up as the sound of something coming my way fleeted into my perked up ears and I darted behind a tree, quickly shifting back to my human form as I took in steady breaths, hoping to shield myself the way I had when Alpha Zarek nearly found me days ago.

"Dahlia?" A loud voice called out and I instantly froze when the voice tickled at my brain.

Beta Orion?

"Dahlia, I can smell you. If you’re here please show yourself. Come out, I miss you."

Silence.

"Dahlia?!" The voice sounded louder now, closer even. "Please. I’m beside myself with worry!" Then under his breath, he added; "Or am I imagining things?"

For a moment, I contemplated showing myself, I contemplated going to see him— maybe it was due to the fact that I am stupid. Or maybe it was because of the agony I could hear in his voice.

I had just lifted my leg, ready to move when a loud growl caught my ears and I froze.

"Orion, what is—" the person began to say but suddenly stopped after taking in an extremely loud sniff. "Dahlia? She’s here?!"

He snarled, and gods, I hated the way my body immediately reacted to the voice. I hated the way my blood did too, ringing inside my ears like it was being boiled; and how my wolf whined with wanton pleasure.

"Alpha Zarek—" I whispered softly, noticing the way his body tensed up before he slowly turned in my direction.