<h4>Chapter 182: Caleb’s Pursuit</h4>


    <strong>CALEB POV</strong>


    I threw myself through the tear in reality just as it started to close.


    The dimensional hunters had been attacking our pack for hours, using our ties to Lily to slowly kill us all. But when Aiden tried to break those ties with Elder Henrik’s ritual, something unexpected happened instead.


    I could still feel her.


    Not the original mate tie - that was gone, severed by Aiden’s sacrifice. But something else had taken its ce. A new link that felt different, stronger somehow. Like an echo that had be its own song.


    Now I was falling through swirling colors and impossible shapes, chasing that echo toward wherever Lily had gone. I had no idea what I was doing or how I’d live in other dimensions, but I couldn’t let her face this alone.


    I crashed into solid ground so hard it knocked the breath from my lungs. When I managed to sit up, I found myself in a world that looked like someone had painted the sky purple and filled it with floating inds.


    And standing twenty feet away, looking at me in shock, was Lily.


    "Caleb?" she gasped. "How are you here? The bonds were broken!"


    I stood up slowly, my whole body aching from the dimensional trip. "Apparently they weren’t brokenpletely."


    She ran toward me, then stopped suddenly, fear filling her eyes. "You have to go back! If you’re here, the hunts can track you. They’ll find Silver Peak through you!"


    "They already found Silver Peak," I told her. "Aiden broke the ties to stop them, but it was toote. The pack is fighting for their lives right now."


    Lily’s face crumpled with sadness and guilt. But before either of us could say more, a voice spoke from behind me.


    "Fascinating."


    I spun around to see a man with strange eyes and a disturbing smile. Next to him stood a figure made of nk energy that radiated power and danger.


    "You must be Kestrel," I said, remembering Lily’s words. "And you’re her son."


    The void creature nodded. "The mate survives dimensional separation. That shouldn’t be possible."


    "It shouldn’t," Kestrel agreed, studying me like I was a puzzle to solve. "Unless..."


    He trailed off, but I could see understanding dawning in his face.


    "Unless what?" Lily demanded.


    "Unless your bond wasn’t just magical," Kestrel said slowly. "True emotional connections can sometimes live when mystical ones are destroyed. But that would mean..."


    "It would mean their love was real even before the Triple Moon mark appeared," her son finished. "Interesting."


    I felt heat rise in my cheeks, but I also felt a rush of hope. "So I can stay with her?"


    "Absolutely not," Kestrel said strongly. "If anything, this makes you more dangerous. A bond that can survive dimensional severance is exactly the kind of link other hunters will exploit."


    As if called by his words, the floating inds around us began to shake. Cracks emerged in the purple sky, and through them, I could see dark shapes moving.


    "More hunters," Lily whispered.


    "We need to move," Kestrel said, already preparing to open a link.


    But I had a different idea. "What if we don’t run?"


    Everyone stared at me.


    "Think about it," I continued. "Lily’s been jumping from world to world, but each ce gets more unstable. What if instead of running, we find a way to fix the damage?"


    "That’s impossible," Kestrel said. "The dimensional barriers are too weakened."


    "Is it?" I challenged. "Lily’s abilities tear holes between worlds, right? But what if she could learn to sew them back up instead?"


    Lily’s eyes widened. "You mean use my powers to heal dimensions instead of damaging them?"


    "It’s never been done," her son said, but he sounded interested rather than dismissive.


    "A lot of things have never been done until someone tries," I pointed out.


    The dark forms in the sky were getting closer, and I could feel their hunger like a physical weight pressing down on us.


    "Even if that were possible," Kestrel said quickly, "she’d need time to learn, and we don’t have time."


    "Then we make time," I said, making a choice that terrified me. "I’ll distract the hunters. Lead them away from Lily while she figures out how to fix this."


    "Caleb, no!" Lily grabbed my arm. "You don’t have dimensional powers. They’ll kill you!"


    "Maybe," I admitted. "But I have something they don’t expect."


    I pulled out Elder Iris’s study journal, which I’d grabbed before following Lily through the portal. "All her notes about the Triple Moon prophecy, about omega knowledge, about dimensional energy. Maybe there’s something in here that can help."


    Lily looked at the journal with tears in her eyes. "You brought her research?"


    "I brought everything I could," I said. "Because wherever you go, I go. That’s what mates do."


    Before anyone could stop me, I opened a portal of my own - not using dimensional powers I didn’t have, but using the echo bond that linked me to Lily. If our love was strong enough to survive dimensional severance, maybe it was strong enough to let me borrow her powers.


    The portal worked, opening onto a world of endless desert under twin suns.


    "Follow me if you want to live!" I shouted to theing hunters, then jumped through.


    To my amazement and fear, they took the bait. The dark shapes changed direction, following me into the desert world instead of chasing Lily.


    But as Inded in burning sand, I understood I’d made a terrible mistake.


    The hunters weren’t just following me - they were using our echo bond to drain Lily’s power through me. Every second I stayed connected to her, I was making her weaker.


    And in the distance, I could see something that made my blood freeze.


    A massive creature made of starlight and shadow, easily the size of a rock. It turned its old eyes toward me and spoke in a voice that shook the desert.


    "The Echo Walker. How long we have waited for one such as you."


    I tried to run, but my feet were already sinking into sand that had turned to quicksand.


    "Your bond will be the key that unlocks all realities," the creature added. "Through you, we will reach every dimension, every world, every being that your mate has ever touched."


    As I sank deeper into the sand, I realized with rising horror that I hadn’t saved Lily at all.


    I’d just given her enemies the ultimate tool against her.