h4Chapter 201: Five Years Later/h4

    strongLILY POV/strong

    Just as things started to fall apart around me, the baby kicked hard against my ribs.

    "Caleb!" As we screamed and reached for my partner, the kitchen floor turned into a swirling purple mist. We were making breakfast and talking about names for babies one second, and our cabin was moving away like sugar in water the next.

    Caleb snatched my hand, his eyes wide with fear. "The chaos dimension - it’s back!"

    But this didn’t feel the same as it did five years ago. Worse. The chaos wasn’t just making new rules for reality. It was eating reality totally, leaving nothing behind but empty darkness.

    As our walls fell apart, I could see other pack members screaming as their homes disappeared. Luna ran past our window, but her legs were going backwards while her body faced forward. Elder Iris was stuck in the air, spinning slowly like a music box dancer.

    "The baby," I gasped, putting my arms around my seven-month belly. The child inside me was kicking like crazy, as if they could feel danger.

    "I won’t let anything happen to either of you," Caleb promised, but his voice sounded strange. When I looked at him, his face was flickering between his normal looks and something else - something with golden eyes that weren’t quite human.

    The chaos pulled us upward, through what used to be our roof. As we floated in the twisting air, I saw the full horror of what was happening to Silver Peak. The entire pack area was being erased, piece by piece. Mountains crumbled into glittering dust. The forest turned inside-out, showing the hollow ces between trees.

    But something else was wrong. Something beyond the chaos.

    "Lily," Caleb said, and his voice echoed weirdly. "There’s something I never told you about what happened five years ago."

    "What?" I demanded, though speech was difficult with reality spinning around us.

    "When you became the Architect of Bnce, when you saved everyone from the anti-love world - you didn’t just change how supernatural beings love. You changed something bigger. You changed me."

    His face flickered again, and this time I saw what he really looked like underneath. Golden skin that seemed to glow from within. Eyes like liquid sunshine. Wings that folded against his back.

    "You’re not human," I whispered.

    "I’m not even from this reality," he admitted. "I’m from thend of order - the opposite of chaos. I was sent here to find the Architect of Bnce, to help her restore peace between all dimensions."

    The baby kicked harder, and suddenly I understood. The child growing inside me wasn’t just a werewolf pup. It was somethingpletely new.

    "The baby," I said, my voice shaking. "What is our baby?"

    Caleb’s true form zed brighter as reality kept falling apart around us. "The first being ever made from the love between Order and Bnce. A child who could either save all life or destroy itpletely."

    A new voice cut through the confusion - cold and sharp as winter wind. "Finally. I’ve been waiting so long for this moment."

    We spun around to see a figure materializing in the empty air. She looked like me, but wrong. My face, my hair, my body - except her eyes were ck as empty space, and shadows leaked from her skin like blood.

    "Who are you?" I asked.

    She smiled with my mouth, but the look was cruel in a way I’d never seen. "I’m you, Lily. The you that never picked love. The you that let hate win. I’m your shadow from another world, and I’vee to take what should have been mine."

    "That’s impossible," Caleb said, moving protectively in front of me.

    "Is it?" Shadow-Lilyughed. "Every decision creates two paths. When you chose to love instead of hate, when you chose bnce instead of revenge, you made me - all the darkness you rejected. And I’ve been growing stronger in the spaces between realities, waiting for the right moment to reim what was stolen from me."

    She pointed at my belly. "That child should be mine. Born from my darkness instead of your light. The first Shadow-Bnce being, with power to reshape all reality ording to my will."

    "Never," I snarled, startling myself with the fierceness in my voice.

    Shadow-Lily’s face twisted with rage. "You can’t stop me. I know every move you’ll make because I am you. Every strength you have, I have. But I also have everything you’re too weak to do."

    The chaos around us suddenly stilled, forming into a circle arena floating in empty space. But this wasn’t wild chaos anymore. This was a trap.

    "Choose," Shadow-Lily said, her voice booming with terrible power. "Fight me for the right to live, and risk killing the baby with the stress of battle. Or submit, let me take your ce, and I’ll make sure the child is born safely - as my child, in my dark reality."

    The baby kicked again, and I felt something wet between my legs. My heart stopped.

    "Lily," Caleb whispered, seeing my face. "What’s wrong?"

    "The baby," I gasped. "Something’s happening. I think... I think I’m going intobor."

    Shadow- Lily’s smile grew bigger. "Perfect time. You can’t fight me while giving birth. Surrender now, and I’ll help you through the delivery. Refuse, and you’ll try to fight me while your child tries to be born. Either way, I win."

    Pain shot through my belly, sharp and intense. The baby wasing, here in this nightmare world, with reality broken and my evil double demanding everything I loved.

    "Caleb," I said through tight teeth as another contraction hit. "Whatever happens, promise me you’ll protect our child."

    He grabbed my hand, his golden form burning brighter. "I promise. But you’re not giving up. We’ll find another way."

    Shadow-Lily raised her hands, dark energy sparking between her fingers. "Time’s up. Make your choice, light-Lily. Fight me and lose your baby, or submit and lose yourself."

    The contraction peaked just as she attacked, shooting waves of shadow energy straight at my heart.

    And in that moment, with pain tearing through my body and darkness closing in from all sides, I felt something impossible.

    The baby wasn’t just being born.

    It was fighting back.