Chapter 9
704words
I embraced my role as Alpha's mate, using my unique perspective to help bridge our communities. Together, we created something unprecedented—true cooperation between species that had historically mistrusted each other.
When I became pregnant, the news spread like wildfire through both communities. This child would be the first born of a true wolf-human bond, living proof that our peoples could unite. Damian was adorably overprotective, treating me like precious glass despite my enhanced strength.
One night, mere days before my due date, Damian was called away to mediate a territory dispute. I was resting by the hearth when the air in our home suddenly chilled.
The fire flickered, then dimmed, though no draft had entered the room. My enhanced senses detected a presence—familiar yet impossible.
"Show yourself," I commanded, one hand protectively covering my swollen belly.
A figure materialized near the window—translucent, shimmering, but unmistakably Ryan.
"No," I gasped, reaching for the dagger I still kept nearby. "You're dead. I killed you myself."
"Yes, I am dead," Ryan's ghost agreed, his voice echoing strangely. "But my spirit cannot find peace."
His form wavered like smoke, the edges of his body blurring into nothingness. This was no living threat—just an echo of the man who had once destroyed my life.
"What do you want?" I demanded, my voice steadier than I felt. "Haven't you caused enough suffering?"
"I can't harm you anymore," Ryan's spirit said, a hint of sadness in his ethereal voice. "I've come to speak my piece before I fade from this world completely."
I kept my distance, suspicious. "Then speak and be gone."
"I'm sorry," he said simply. "For everything—pushing you from that cliff, for the child that never had a chance to live, for treating you as a pawn rather than a person. My words mean nothing now, I know, but my regret is real."
I laughed bitterly. "You expect forgiveness now? When you're safely beyond any consequences? When I've finally found happiness despite you, not because of you?"
"I expect nothing," his ghost replied, gaze lingering on my pregnant belly. "Damian is the better man—he always was. He'll give you everything I couldn't—respect, honesty, true partnership."
"Why are you really here, Ryan?" I asked, tired of ghosts and old wounds. "What do you want from me?"
"The truth is," he said, his form flickering like a candle flame, "I did fall in love with you this time. Not at first—it began as the same manipulation. But something changed. Your strength, your compassion even toward those who didn't deserve it... I found myself truly wanting you, not just what you represented."
I shook my head firmly. "That wasn't love, Ryan. You killed Rosie without hesitation. You would have killed Damian. You would have killed me eventually, too. That's obsession, not love."
"You're right," he conceded, surprising me. "I didn't understand love. I was raised to take what I wanted, to see affection as weakness. Only in death have I learned that true strength lies in vulnerability, and real love in freedom."
I studied his ghostly form, uncertain what to believe. The Ryan I knew had been incapable of such insight. Yet death, it seemed, had granted him a perspective life had not.
"My time here is ending," Ryan said, his form growing fainter. "I just wanted you to know that in my next life, I'll try to be worthy of the love I squandered in this one. Goodbye, Gracie."
With those words, his ghost dissolved into motes of light that swirled briefly before vanishing completely.
I remained by the fire long after he'd gone, one hand resting on my unborn child. Had Ryan's spirit truly visited, or had pregnancy hormones conjured a comforting hallucination? Either way, I realized the hatred I'd carried for so long had finally burned itself out.
As my baby kicked beneath my palm, I smiled. This child would know nothing of revenge or past lives—only love and possibility. Perhaps that was the greatest victory of all.
