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"I'll keep your prescription in mind," Seraphina teased. "But for now, I'm sticking with my sea air therapy."

"Fine, fine. But if you see any hot guys on the beach, get their number. Doctor's orders."

"Good-bye, Abby."

Seraphina hung up, setting her phone down with a soft chuckle. Her friend's vibrant energy always left her feeling lighter, even when her world felt like it was tilting on its axis.

Seraphina locked her front door and stepped out into the Miami morning sunshine.

The yellow sundress fluttered around her knees as a gentle breeze carried the scent of the ocean and promised temporary relief from her chaotic thoughts.

She slipped her feet into the sandals she'd left on her front porch and headed toward the beach, her sanctuary when life became too complicated to untangle.

Ten minutes later, the sand shifted beneath her feet as she kicked off her sandals, relishing the warm grains between her toes.

She inhaled deeply, letting the rhythmic crash of waves against the shore calm her frayed nerves.

Science had always been her anchor—predictable, explainable, and governed by immutable laws.

These visions defied everything she believed about the universe.

"Focus on what's real," she whispered to herself, digging her toes deeper into the sand. "The beach is real. The ocean is real. These weird premonitions are?—"

"More real than you might want to admit."

Seraphina whirled around, nearly losing her balance.

Standing there was the man from her visions—impossibly, inexplicably real.

Same storm-gray eyes that seemed to carry years of wisdom.

Same expertly styled gray hair. Same powerful build beneath a fitted Henley that did nothing to hide his muscular frame. Her heart stuttered in her chest.

"How..." The word came out as barely a whisper. Her scientific mind scrambled for explanations. Coincidence? Hallucination? Had she somehow seen him around Miami before and incorporated him into her visions without conscious awareness?

"I'm Orion." His voice carried the same rich timbre she'd somehow known it would. He extended his hand, his eyes never leaving hers. "I've been looking for you."

"I'm Seraphina. But I don't... I can't..." Seraphina stepped back, wrapping her arms around herself.

"You're confused. I understand," he said, pulling his hand back.

"How could you possibly understand?" The words tumbled out before she could stop them. "I don't even know you, yet I've been seeing you in my—" She cut herself off, unwilling to admit to the visions aloud to him.

"In your visions." He completed her sentence, his expression infuriatingly calm. "It's perfectly normal, given what's happening to you."

A chill raced down Seraphina's spine despite the warm sun beating down on them.

"I'm sorry, but I've been ill lately. I'm not really up for talking right now.

" She took another step back, desperate to put distance between herself and this handsome stranger who couldn't possibly know what she'd been experiencing. "I should go."

She turned to leave, her mind racing with questions. How had he known about her visions? Who was this mysterious man?

"Seraphina," he called after her, his voice rising over the sound of crashing waves. "You're not ill. You've manifested your Luna powers."

She froze mid-step, her breath catching in her throat. Luna powers? The term was completely foreign yet somehow stirred something deep within her. Before she could respond, her phone buzzed in her hand. The doorbell camera app showed someone at her front door.

"I... I really have to go." She snatched up her sandals and hurried across the beach, confusion and fear tangling in her chest.

As Seraphina neared her house, something felt wrong. The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she noticed her living room window—shattered, glass glittering on the front lawn. Through the jagged opening, she could make out a shadowy figure moving inside.

Common sense screamed at her to run, to call the police, and to get as far away as possible. But as she reached for her phone, another vision slammed into her with such force that she staggered.

Unlike her previous glimpses of the future, this vision transported her completely.

Seraphina found herself in a crowded auditorium, facing a stage where a distinguished man with slicked-back gray hair and piercing blue eyes stood at a podium.

His tailored suit and commanding presence screamed politician, though she couldn't place his face.

"We will reshape this nation," he was saying, his voice carrying an undercurrent that made Seraphina's skin crawl. "We will create a new order."

Before her horrified eyes, the man's features began to contort.

Bones cracked and shifted beneath his skin as his face elongated into a muzzle filled with razor-sharp teeth.

His elegant suit split at the seams as his body grew, massive and terrifying, covered in gray fur.

Not a man anymore—a beast. A wolf twice the size of a normal one.

The crowd around Seraphina wasn't running in terror. Instead, they too began to change, bones breaking and reforming as they transformed into smaller versions of the creature on stage. Then, as one, they turned toward a group of normal humans backed against a wall, terror etched on their faces.

"No!" Seraphina screamed as the wolves lunged forward, jaws snapping.

The vision held her in its grip, forcing her to witness the carnage as humans fell beneath claws and teeth.

Blood splattered across white marble floors.

Screams echoed off vaulted ceilings. And through it all, the lead wolf—the politician—watched with cold, calculating eyes that seemed to look right through the vision and find her.

Seraphina's scream tore from her throat, ripping her back to reality.