<h4>Chapter 183: Dimensional Exile</h4>


    <strong>LILY POV</strong>


    The ground beneath my feet turned to liquid fire.


    I screamed and threw myself sideways as the purple grass melted into boilingva. This was the third time today that a perfectly safe world had tried to kill me. My dimensional skills were getting weaker, and I could barely control where Inded anymore.


    I rolled behind a crystal tree just as the entire field became a sea of molten rock. The heat made my skin feel like it was burning, but I forced myself to think. Panicking would only make things worse.


    "Focus, Lily," I whispered to myself. "You survived the dimensional hunts before. You can do this."


    But that was when I had Kestrel and my son to help me. Now I was totally alone, jumping from world to world with nowhere safe to rest. Every dimension I entered seemed to sense I didn’t fit and tried to reject me violently.


    I pressed my back against the smooth crystal and tried to open another link. The familiar tingling started in my fingers, but instead of the normal strong pull, I felt only a weak flutter. My powers were definitely fading.


    A portal finally opened, barely big enough for me to squeeze through. I dove into it just as the crystal tree began to melt behind me.


    I crashed onto soft grass under a pink sky. For a moment, I let myself hope this world might be quiet. Then I heard the screaming.


    Massive wolves the size of horses burst from a nearby bush, their eyes glowing red. But these weren’t normal wolves - they moved wrong, like puppets being driven by invisible strings. Dimensional bugs. I’d read about them in Elder Iris’s study journal, but seeing them in person made my blood turn cold.


    They could possess any creature and use it to hunt beings like me who moved between worlds.


    I ran.


    My feet pounded across the strange grass as the possessed dogs chased me. I could hear them getting closer, their ws scratching against the ground. My heart hammered in my chest as I searched desperately for somewhere to hide.


    A cave opening appeared ahead. I raced toward it, diving inside just as the first wolf snapped at my heels. The cave was deeper than I expected, curving into darkness. I kept running, using my hands to feel along the walls.


    Behind me, the wolves howled in anger. They couldn’t fit through the small opening.


    I finally stopped when I couldn’t hear them anymore. My chest burned from running so hard, and my hands were shaking. I slumped against the cave wall and tried not to cry.


    Three days. That’s how long I’d been jumping from world to world, barely staying ahead of the hunts. I hadn’t eaten anything except some strange berries that made my stomach hurt. I hadn’t slept for more than a few minutes at a time. And worst of all, I had no idea if my pack was still living.


    The thought of Caleb made my chest ache. When Aiden broke our mate bonds to save the pack from the dimensional hunts, I thought I’d lost Caleb forever. But somehow, he’d followed me through the opening. Somehow, our love had been strong enough to survive even magical separation.


    Until I’d led him straight into a trap.


    I pulled out Elder Iris’s notebook with trembling hands. The pages were getting worn from me reading them over and over, searching for solutions. There had to be something I was missing, some way to fight back instead of just running.


    I flipped to a part about dimensional energy and omega abilities. ording to the notes, omegas like me were natural bridges between worlds. That’s why my powers could tear holes in reality. But Elder Iris had written something else that I’d never really understood before: "The greatest omega gift is not death, but healing. What tears apart can also be put back together."


    Healing dimensions instead of hurting them. That’s what Caleb had suggested before he... before the hunts took him.


    I closed my eyes and tried to feel the energy of this world. It was different from what I was used to - wilder, more disorderly. But underneath the strangeness, I could sense something familiar. The same basic life force that exists in all realities.


    What if I tried to work with it instead of fighting against it?


    I ced my hands t against the cave floor and reached out with my powers. Instead of pushing a portal open, I tried to gently touch the world’s energy. At first, nothing happened. Then I felt a small reaction, like the dimension was curious about me.


    "I’m not here to hurt you," I whispered. "I just need somewhere safe to rest."


    The cave walls began to glow with soft blue light. The air became warmer and more cozy. Somehow, I’d managed to speak with the world itself.


    Hope fluttered in my chest. Maybe Elder Iris was right. Maybe I could learn to heal instead of harm.


    But that hope died when I heard footsteps echoing from deeper in the cave.


    I scrambled to my feet, ready to run again. But the figure that emerged from the shadows made me freeze in fear.


    It was me.


    Another Lily stood at the edge of the light, wearing clothes I’d never seen and a cruel smile I’d never worn. Her eyes were cold and empty, like looking into a mirror that showed only darkness.


    "Hello, little sister," she said in my voice. "I’ve been waiting for you."


    "You’re not real," I whispered, backing toward the cave mouth.


    "Oh, but I am." She stepped closer, and I could see scars on her arms that looked like failed mate marks. "I’m what you be when you give up hope. When you let the dimensions change you instead of the other way around."


    My back hit the cave wall. "That’s impossible."


    "Is it?" She tilted her head, and the move was exactly like something I would do. "How many ces have you been to, Lily? How many times have you used your powers? Each jump changes you a little bit. Each door tears away a piece of who you used to be."


    I tried to open a portal to leave, but my powers wouldn’t work. The cave had be a trap.


    "Don’t bother," the other Lily said. "This is a nexus point - a ce where all options meet. I’m you from a future where you never learned to heal dimensions. Where you became just another monster jumping from world to world, destroying everything you touched."


    She reached out with one scarred hand. "But it doesn’t have to be that way. Come with me, and I’ll show you how to stop running. How to be strong enough to take what you want instead of always hiding."


    "I’m nothing like you," I said, but my voice shook.


    "Yet," she agreed. "But you will be, unless you make a different choice right now."


    The cave began to shake. Through the opening, I could see the possessed wolves had found another way in. Behind me, my twisted future self waited with that terrible smile.


    And somewhere in the distance, I heard a voice that made my heart stop.


    "Lily!" It was Caleb, calling my name. But how was that possible? The hunters had taken him. Unless... Unless this was another trick.


    I was surrounded on all sides with no idea who to trust, no idea what was real. And I had about ten seconds to make a choice that would decide not just my survival, but my very soul.


    The dogs howled. My other selfughed. And Caleb’s voice called out again, closer now.


    I had to choose. But every choice led to darkness.


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