Fated to the Alpha–And His Triplet Brothers

Chapter 21: The Dream and the Dress

~Hazel’s POV~

"Come here..."

A voice rasped after me, low and twisted like something crawling up from beneath the earth.

I ran. NovelFire

Faster than I ever had before, legs screaming, lungs burning, heart thudding loud in my ears. The air was thick and heavy I couldn’t tell if it was night or if darkness itself had swallowed me whole. I just knew I had to keep running.

I didn’t know where I was.

All I knew was that the voice guttural, broken, inhuman was behind me. Chasing.

My bare feet slapped against cold, damp earth. Tree branches scratched at my arms like fingers trying to pull me back. The scent of decay curled in my nose—wet leaves, moss, something else. Something rotting.

Then my ear caught a noise.

A cry.

A baby’s cry.

High-pitched, fragile... coming from the woods up ahead.

I faltered, breath hitching. My mind screamed at me to run the other way, but my feet turned toward the sound.

I was in a forest. But how? How did I leave Father’s house? I didn’t remember walking out the door. Didn’t remember anything at all.

Not that Father’s house wasn’t its own personal hell, but still... this place was different. Wilder. More dangerous.

I ran toward the baby’s cry, drawn by something I couldn’t explain. The shadow behind me was gaining. I could feel it. I didn’t look back.

"You’re an abomination," the voice hissed again, jagged and seething. "You are bringing more abomination. You’re destroying the balance of nature. You need to be taken down."

Abomination? What did that even mean? I was just... me. Ordinary. Forgotten. The rejected human girl in a cursed household.

How was I suddenly some kind of threat?

My thoughts were spinning, heart thundering as I pushed through thorned bushes and crooked trees. Then, suddenly I tripped.

I fell.

front of a

the silence, trembling and desperate. In the dimness, I could see the small silhouette of a child swaddled inside. My hand reached

turned my head

seen. Not walking gliding. There was no face, only blackness, swirling and alive. In

chest hurt. A sharp, aching pulse right over my heart. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t

cried louder,

Pain.

cracked in half as

And I screamed.

for a terrifying second, I

fingers trembled as they

A small mark. Tiny, but

was just a dream.

Wasn’t it?

when my door

day!" Ariel’s voice chirped, far too cheerful for how haunted I felt. She shoved past the cluster of maids holding baskets of beauty

helped anchor me back to the moment. The

Should I tell her?

call me insane?

tiny injury was gone. Not even a shadow remained. My skin was smooth, untouched. Like nothing had

Maybe I was crazy.

smile softening. "What’s going on?" she asked, her

come. I just shook my head. No

didn’t push. "Good," she said instead, clapping her hands. "Let’s get

out of a dream one of the good ones, not the nightmare I’d just woken from. A large porcelain tub

I stared, stunned.

a cracked basin, cold water, and a quick scrub if I was

of the maids said with a small smile, as though she could

was Caspian.

royalty. But I couldn’t relax. I kept thinking about the dream. The baby. The mark. The voice that said I was bringing

me, and I needed space. Alone with the lavender and the silence, I breathed in deeply and tried to calm the

in a towel. They helped me dress slowly, reverently, like I was

I saw