<h4>Chapter 186: The Fourth Emotion</h4>


    <strong>LILY POV</strong>


    My mirror grabbed my throat and started squeezing.


    I gasped and stumbled backward, but everywhere I looked, another mirror showed the same thing - my own face twisted with evil purpose, my own hands trying to kill me. The mirror world had turned my image into a weapon against myself.


    "Lily!" Caleb reached for me, but his image did the same thing - grabbing him around the neck. We were both being crushed by ourselves.


    I tried to break the nearby mirror with my fist, but my hand passed right through it like water. The reflections were real here, strong enough to hurt us but impossible to fight back against.


    My lungs burned as my evil twin tightened her grip. ck spots danced in front of my eyes. This was it. I was going to die looking at my own face.


    Then something new happened inside my chest. Not the anger I’d felt when Aiden sacrificed our bond. Not the shame about leading everyone into danger. Not even the sadness of losing my pack.


    Pure, cold fear.


    It hit me like ice water, freezing my blood and making my heart race. I was going to die. Caleb was going to die. Everyone who counted on me would be lost forever. The fear was so strong it felt like drowning.


    But instead of making me weaker, something strange happened. The fear made me think faster, move quicker, fight harder than I ever had before.


    I stopped trying to fight my image and did something else instead. I looked her right in the eyes and spoke.


    "You’re afraid too," I said, even though it was hard to talk with her hands around my throat.


    My reflection’s grip loosened slightly. "What?"


    "You’re afraid," I replied, louder this time. "You’re afraid that I’ll learn to heal instead of harm. You’re afraid I’ll figure out how to fix what’s broken."


    The bad version of me snarled, but I could see uncertainty in her eyes - my eyes.


    "You’re not really me from another future," I continued, understanding rushing through me. "You’re just my fear made visible. The fear that I’ll be a monster."


    Around us, the mirror world began to shake. Cracks emerged in the surfaces, showing glimpses of something else beyond them.


    "But fear doesn’t have to make me a monster," I said, and meant it. "Fear can make me careful. It can make me think before I act. It can help me protect the people I love."


    My reflection’s hands fell away from my throatpletely. She stared at me with an expression I recognized - the same look I’d worn when I first got my Triple Moon mark and didn’t know what it meant.


    "I’m not afraid of being afraid," I told her. "I’m afraid of not caring enough to be scared."


    The mirror broke, taking my evil twin with it. All around us, the other mirrors began breaking too, freeing Caleb from his own reflection’s attack.


    As the mirror world copsed, we fell through empty space again. But this time, I was ready. The fear was still there in my chest, but it felt different now - like a guard dog instead of a wild beast. It was warning me, helping me, making me stronger.


    I reached out with my powers, not trying to force a portal open, but asking the worlds for help. And for the first time since this whole nightmare started, they answered.


    Wended gently on solid ground in a world that felt peaceful. No monsters, no angry scenery, no hunters waiting in ambush. Just calm.


    "How did you do that?" Caleb asked, staring at me in wonder.


    "I stopped fighting my emotions," I said. "I epted the fear instead of trying to push it away."


    As I spoke, I realized something amazing. The first three feelings I’d experienced after Aiden’s sacrifice - anger, guilt, and sadness - they’d all been about the past. About things that had already happened. But fear was different. Fear was about the future, about defending what might be lost.


    "Fear makes you care," I whispered, understanding growing in my mind. "It makes you want to keep things safe."


    That’s when I heard the pping.


    We spun around to find a group of dimensional seekers standing behind us, pping slowly. But these weren’t the normal dark-armored figures. These hunters wore white uniforms with silver marks I didn’t recognize.


    "Very impressive," the boss said. She was a woman with kind eyes and a warm smile that somehow made me more worried than any weapon could have. "We’ve been watching your progress through the mirror world. Quite interesting."


    "Let us go," Caleb said, stepping protectively in front of me.


    "Oh, we’re not here to capture you," the womanughed. "We’re here to recruit you."


    "Recruit us for what?" I asked suspiciously. "The Dimensional Protection Agency," she said proudly. "We’re the good guys, Lily. We hunt the shooters who’ve been chasing you."


    I felt Caleb tense beside me. After everything we’d been through, trust didn’te easy.


    "Prove it," I said.


    The woman smiled wider and pointed to her team. "Show them."


    One of the other shooters stepped forward and pulled back his sleeve. His arm was covered in the same scars that Vera had called "hunter marks" - proof that he’d been abused by dimensional hunters.


    "We’re all refugees," he stated. "People who escaped from the Council’s genocide and decided to fight back."


    "The Council?" Caleb asked.


    "The group that’s been ordering the destruction of dimensional travelers and their home worlds," the woman said. "They call themselves the Dimensional Stability Council, but they’re really just power-hungry tyrants who want to control all of reality."


    She held out her hand to me. "We’ve been looking for someone like you, Lily. An omega who can fix dimensional damage instead of just causing it. With your help, we could start undoing centuries of damage."


    It sounded too good to be true. After being hunted and attacked everywhere we went, someone finally wanted to help us?


    But my new understanding of fear made me careful. "What’s the catch?" I asked.


    "Smart girl," the woman said approvingly. "The catch is that to help us, you’d have to go back to your home world. The Council has your pack surrounded, nning to use them as bait to draw you into a trap."


    My blood went cold. "My pack is in danger?"


    "More than danger," she said grimly. "The Council is nning to destroy your entire reality tomorrow night. Every person, every wolf, every tree and stone - all of it will be erased to make an example of what happens when dimensions house omega travelers."


    The fear in my chest burst into panic. "We have to warn them!"


    "That’s exactly what the Council is counting on," the woman said. "They know you’lle back to save your pack, and they’ll be waiting with a trap that will drain your powers permanently."


    I looked at Caleb, seeing my own terror mirrored in his eyes. Our pack, our family, everyone we’d ever loved was going to die unless we walked straight into certain capture.


    "But," the woman added, "there might be another way. A risky way that’s never been tried before."


    "What?" I asked desperately.


    She smiled, but this time it looked more like an animal showing its teeth. "We send you back in time instead of just back in space. Before the Council circles your pack. Before they set their trap."


    "Time travel?" Caleb shook his head. "That’s impossible."


    "For normal dimensional travelers, yes," the woman agreed. "But an omega who’s mastered her fourth emotion? Who’s learned to use fear as strength instead of weakness? She might be able to do it."


    "Might?" I said.


    "The odds aren’t good," she allowed. "Time travel through dimensions could tear you apartpletely. Or worse, it could spread pieces of you across multiple timelines, leaving you aware but unable to act in any of them."


    I stared at her, my mind running. Save my pack by risking a fate worse than death, or let them all die while I stayed safe.


    "When do we start?" I asked.


    The woman’s smile became real for the first time. "Right now. But Lily, there’s something else you need to know before you decide."


    "What?"


    "If the time travel works, you’ll arrive in your past before you ever got your Triple Moon mark. Before you met Caleb as your mate. You’ll remember everything, but he won’t remember you."


    My heart shattered. "I’ll lose him?"


    "Maybe," she said. "Or maybe you’ll find a way to make him fall in love with you all over again. But that’s not the worst part."


    I was afraid to ask, but I had to know. "What’s the worst part?"


    "If you change the past to save your pack, you might prevent yourself from ever gaining dimensional powers in the first ce. You could save everyone you love and lose the ability to ever see them again."


    The choice stretched out in front of me like a chasm. Save my pack but lose my skills and possibly Caleb. Or keep my powers and watch everyone I’d ever cared about die. "I need a minute to think," I said.


    "You have thirty seconds," the woman answered, checking a device on her wrist. "The Council just moved up their schedule. They’re attacking your pack tonight."