Page 46

Story: Loving A Stranger

**Tasha's POV**

I woke up with the feeling that everything was changing, as if the threads of my life were being gently rewoven by an unseen hand.

The campus, which was once a setting for the comforting familiarity of routine, now appeared to be the backdrop for a grand, unfolding drama.

My heart was weighed down by conflicting emotions—fear, longing, and an adamant pull towards a destiny that I had struggled so hard against.

But, as I walked along the sun-drenched corridors that morning, every step carried the burden of secrets no longer my own to hold.

I found myself walking towards the old oak in the courtyard, a silent observer of the passage of time.

The air was clean, and the leaves rustling created a gentle, repetitive lullaby.

But beneath that peaceful melody was an endless thrum of anticipation—a hum of fate that made my heart race.

I could feel the mate bond thrumming beneath my skin, an energy that called to me, even as I stubbornly resisted it at every opportunity.

Each time I got a glimpse of the Lycan Alpha far away, his shadowy figure backlit by the setting sun, I felt an adrenaline rush of need and longing blended with frustration.

His presence itself was so strong, magnetizing me while I wrestled with the ability to keep myself at bay, to refuse the sure attraction that had the power to overwhelm me.

I recalled the numerous nights of insomnia, struggling with the reality that my future was no longer in my control.

I had raised walls around myself, walls to protect myself from the unknown.

And yet every sneaky peek and every subtle reminder of his gaze, those walls tumbled down.

I longed to break the denial prison, but the terror of letting myself fully free petrified me.

That afternoon, sitting beneath the old oak with my journal in my lap, I began scribbling wildly about the nightmares that had haunted me—a battle of blood and fire, a war field where I was in the middle, both fighter and victim.

The images were vivid: a black, bloody field, the cacophony of ancient voices, and a glimpse of myself, transformed, with eyes glowing like embers.

I couldn't help but believe these dreams were a prophecy of things to come—a warning of the devastation ahead.

A soft whisper behind me made me turn. Mina was approaching me, her footsteps uncertain but determined. I felt the quick flicker of worry in her eyes as she sat down next to me on the stone bench. "Tasha, you've been writing again," she whispered, glancing at my journal.

I smiled slightly, but my gaze betrayed the unrest churning inside. "I'm trying to put it all together, Mina. The dreams, the tug. it's like the campus itself is whispering secrets, and I'm caught up in something so much greater than anything I could have imagined."

Mina nodded silently, her gaze drifting out across the horizon where ominous clouds were building.

"I sense it too," she whispered.

"Every day, there's some new sign—shimmering lights, strange voices carried on the wind, and the air itself is electric. It's as if the barriers between our world and something older, something more primal, are collapsing."

We sat quietly for a good long while, both of us lost in our own thoughts, as the campus around us hummed with the undertows of change. The threads of destiny, once hidden and delicate, were now coming together to create a tapestry we could barely touch—but still not quite grasp.

**Mina's POV**

I walked the familiar campus grounds with a heightened sensitivity that exhilarated and terrified me.

Every step, every sound, every scent was magnified.

I was listening to a hidden frequency—a secret channel that revealed the underlying beat of life itself.

But with every step, I couldn't help but feel that I was drifting further and further away from who I once was.

I had noticed it first in the small, nearly imperceptible changes—a sensitivity when I touched another human being, a sudden warmth in my fingertips as if caring for a minor wound without even knowing.

As if some part of me was awakening to something I never knew existed.

I tried to shake it off at first, to convince myself it was stress or fantasy.

But the proof was undeniable, and the emotions grew stronger day by day.

In between classes, I caught glimpses of myself in the window—my eyes, which were usually a soft, unremarkable brown, now seeming to have a glint of gold.

My skin would sometimes seem to be alive with its own soft radiance.

I knew that something was happening to me, but the extent of it was yet unknown.

And it frightened me.

One afternoon, while I walked down an empty corridor, I experienced a moment of shock.

I touched another student and immediately felt a stinging pain course through me, as though I had absorbed the pain from his fall.

I instinctively placed my hand over the spot, and to my amazement, the pain began to dissipate, replaced by a warm comforting feeling.

That was when I knew: I was healing others, in a way that took me by surprise.

It made me exhilarated and vulnerable at the same time.

I receded that night back to the library, seeking comfort among the cobwebbed aisles of old tomes.

I curled in a secluded nook, attempting to piece together the fragments of my encounters.

In the quiet, my mind shifted to Tasha—her unyielding heart, her rebellion against the mate bond even while she was being pulled toward it, and the visions that had haunted her.

I couldn't help but speculate whether her turmoil was somehow related to the changes I was going through. I could feel a still urgency in our relationship—a shared destiny that was drawing us toward one another even as it was tearing us apart.

My line of thinking was interrupted by a sudden vision that struck me out of the blue.

I closed my eyes and, in the blink of an eye, saw Tasha alone in a dark corridor, her face contorted in fear.

The vision was indistinct, the colors running into one another, but the sensation was unmistakable.

I could hear her shout out—words I couldn't quite discern—and then the vision faded away to nothing, leaving me gasping and confused. Had I just gotten a warning? Was Tasha in danger, and if she was, what could I do about it? I wasn't ready to confront such questions yet.

Slowly, I cracked my eyes open, the pressure of the alterations crushing down upon me.

My campus, to which I was accustomed to routines and normalities, was an old labyrinth wherein secrets waited round each bend.

I scribbled in my journal, struggling to set down every sensation, every emotion.

"I wake," I penned, "but at what cost? The difference between pain and healing dissolves, and I worry that losing myself, as I absorb the hurt of the world, is a price that must be paid."

A shiver ran down my spine when I realized that these changes were occurring too quickly.

The harder I tried to keep them at bay, the more elusive they grew.

Whispers of the past, the voices of old healers, whispered faintly in my mind.

I could almost hear them saying, Let go, indulge in this power fully—even if it meant facing my greatest fears.

**Cass's POV**

I watched both of them—the angry flash in Tasha's eyes as she firmly resisted, and the mix of fear and reverence in Mina's eyes.

From day to day, I can see the changes in Mina, the slow healing that goes almost unperceived, yet which I see spreading ever more surely to all sides.

I long to tell it to her, to tell her what is happening, but I know the time isn't here.

I've been her silent guardian for years, trying to tread the fine line between our mortal past and the supernatural future that lies ahead. Now, with the campus being turned into a battleground for these emerging powers, I feel more and more compelled to act. But every time I try to speak up, the words turn into a knot in my throat. I'm afraid telling the truth too early would shatter the balance she is struggling to maintain.

I catch a glimpse of Tasha out of the corner of my eye, her eyes aflame as she stands on the balcony of the library, fighting the siren song of destiny.

And I catch a glimpse of Mina in the halls, her powers growing like a gentle, irresistible tide.

We all now share the weight of the prophecy.

I write it down in my mind: "Secrets hidden too long will eventually shatter the ties that bind us.".

But no time for grand debates now.

I have to stand with them, to guide them through the storm to come—even though it means taking on secrets I'd rather not possess. Each passing moment is one lost. And as I look at them, I feel the inexorable beat of fate closing us all up, driving us toward what must be.

**Lycan Alpha's POV**

I have watched the threads of fate grow tighter around us all, intertwining our destinies into a fabric of inescapable outcome.

Each shared look, each brush, each flash of electricity is a move forward to a future I have dreaded—and desired—since we were together.

Tasha's rebellion is a daily reminder of what I have lost and yearn to reclaim. Her refusal to surrender to the mate bond burns me, and every passing moment apart is torture.

I can feel it—the pull that binds me to her, that forces me to watch her from afar, even as I yearn to break free and take what I believe is mine.

I have waited so long, but restraint doesn't hold when each heartbeat reminds me of what is slipping away. In the solitude, I scribble some harsh words in my secret notebook, words I dare not say aloud:

"Each day I watch her, and each day the distance grows. The prophecy keeps us intact, but each moment of denial destroys me. I must act—before the storm totally blows us asunder."

But still, I realize that timing is everything. Mating ceremony looms on the horizon—a moment that will drive our secrets to the light. Until then, I must wait, must endure this agony of silent longing. It is a burden I've borne too long, a sacrifice that weighs too heavily on my soul.

**Frigg's POV**

From the depths of the old corridors, I have stood and watched as the fabric of fate begins to unravel before all of us.

The campus that was previously a sanctuary of sequestered power and secrets shakes now with the force of fate.

I have seen the omens in the shadow dance, in the whispers in the winds, and in the worried glances of our inheritors.

I believe that the strings that bind Tasha, Mina, and Cass are getting closer, drawing to a moment that will seal their fate—and our entire supernatural one.

The prophecy is not one that has been left behind; it's alive, pulsating through the very air we breathe. And as the storm builds, I know that before long all will be known.

I have placed my own relics—ancient runes and warding spells—to guide them through the storm that awaits.

But watching these children of fate struggle to fit into this world, my heart aches for what is to be.

The sacrifices they will be required to make, the pain they will be forced to endure—all of it is in the stars.

And so I whisper a silent prayer to the ancients: "May they find heart in the gathered threads of destiny, and may our gifts clear the way for a breaking dawn."

**A Shared Dream**

As night descended, the campus grew still, the supernatural turmoil receding to a hum—a temporary lull before the storm could arrive in any other manner.

In that moment of fragile calm, Tasha and Mina—worn as they were—fell into a mutual dream, a vision that blurred the boundaries between sleep and wakefulness.

In the dream, we strolled abreast across a plain buried in ash, beneath a sky ablaze with deep crimson and silver light.

Of us, the wind vibrated with resonant echoes of past ages and wars long forgotten, and under our feet the earth thrummed with the rhythm of a thousand lost hearts.

Wolves in the distance closed in a pack, their howls mingling with whispers of fate.

In that mythical realm, there was a silver-eyed young woman with palms streaked red—a ghostly presence whose presence was threat and invitation.

Her soft but strong voice rang out and was echoed by the voices of our elders:

"You have to choose. Or the world will choose for you."

At that moment, I could feel the weight of fate pressing down on me—a choice that would determine not only my fate but that of everyone who was bound to us. I reached out towards the specter, but she vanished into the mists, leaving behind a chilling promise of change and turmoil.

We awoke together, our hearts racing in the stillness afterwards.

For what felt like some minutes, although they were unbreathed and long, not one of us said a word.

The mutually shared vision had tied us as one in its mysterious message—the message that was to plague us in the subsequent days.

As the campus prepares for the coming storm and the mysterious mating ritual draws ever nearer, the threads of our destinies become more and more intertwined.

Tasha's defiance, Mina's awakening, Cass's internal struggle, the Alpha's burning hunger, and the ancient wisdom of Frigg all converge in this fragile unity—a unity that will reshape our world.

I close my journal, feeling the weight of my own uncertain fate, and whisper to the night, "We're on the edge—now, let's see what comes next."