[BL] Contract Marriage: Nanny of the Alpha's Heir-Chapter 34: A Dream

Devon’s fever rose so violently that by the time he collapsed onto the sheets, Lucien could feel waves of heat radiating from him like the burn of spell fire.

Rowan tried to bring cold towels, and the healer attempted to diagnose the condition, but none of them could explain how Devon’s body could swing from chilled tremors to scorching heat within moments.

Only Lucien, who had seen the brief glow of the runes before Devon fainted, understood that this was no ordinary fever.

When Devon finally drifted into unconscious sleep, his breathing turned shallow, his face pale beneath the flush of fever.

Lucien sat beside him, fingers curled into fists so tight his knuckles whitened. He brushed a damp lock of hair off Devon’s forehead, letting his hand linger just a moment longer than necessary.

"You reckless idiot," he whispered, voice breaking. "Why do you always bleed yourself dry?"

But Devon didn’t hear. He was sinking into a dream so deep it pulled him away from the waking world entirely.

In his dream...

The world was blurry at first, shapes forming, dissolving, rearranging. Then clarity snapped into place.

Devon found himself in a warm cottage lit by afternoon sun. Dust motes floated in the air, dancing like sparks of golden magic. There was laughter, soft, intimate, familiar, echoing from behind a wooden door. He walked toward it with hesitant steps.

Inside, he saw a woman with flowing hair the color of moonlight, her features delicate but fierce. She was holding a toddler, him. A much younger Devon, giggling as she pressed kisses onto his cheek. Beside her stood a tall man with deep crimson eyes... eyes Devon had never seen on any werewolf.

Not a wolf.

Not a human.

Something else.

The man reached out, brushing the woman’s cheek lovingly before turning to the child.

"Devlin," he said with a soft smile, Devlin, not Devon, "...remember, no matter what happens, you must live."

The name struck him like lightning.

Devlin.

His true name. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Devon blinked rapidly.

"I... I had an older brother," he whispered to himself. "So that means... I..."

He turned, and his gaze shifted to the shadowed corner of the room where another child sat, older by a few minutes, raven-haired, with eyes that held the same glow he’d seen in the intruder earlier.

His brother.

The boy looked back at him with a quiet intensity, and suddenly the dream bled into something sharper, memory, not imagination.

He remembered the days when his mother and father taught them how to contain their magic. How to hide their existence. How to use a rune to mask their bloodline.

"There are those who hunt us," his father murmured while pressing his palm over Devlin’s tiny hands. "You must never let them find you. Not until you’re ready."

His mother cupped his face next, her eyes shimmering with something beyond warmth, fear. "You are different, Devlin. You and your brother... You are the last of us."

Devon’s breath hitched as pieces snapped together.

The vampires. The assassins. The witches who whispered about a "hidden heir." The way magic reacted violently to his emotions.

He wasn’t a werewolf. He wasn’t even half.

He was something else entirely, something forbidden.

Another memory resurfaced, this one darker.

A night full of screams. His mother’s voice shouting incantations. His father roaring at someone unseen. His older brother grabbing his shoulders, eyes filled with desperation.

"Run, Devlin! Hide!"

Then the world shook with magic so strong it tore the air apart.

His father dragged him and his brother toward the forest, chanting spells to bury their presence. Devon felt his father’s blood marking his skin, burning like molten iron. Masking him. Changing him. His mother cried out behind them.

His father paused, turning with a tortured look. "Wait here. Protect your brother."

He never returned.

The memory blurred as darkness swallowed everything.

Back in the Present

Devon gasped awake, drenched in sweat, his heart pounding as if trying to escape his chest. His skin was icy cold despite the fever, and the images of his parents and brother still clung to him like shadows refusing to fade.

He clutched the blanket, trembling.

My mother was not a werewolf. My father was not mortal. And I... I am not Devon at all.

All along... I thought I was just a weak omega, unable to shift fully into my wolf form.

Devon pressed his palms to his eyes, his breath shaky as the truth finally consumed him, a truth he had never known, a truth that had been ripped from his memory, sealed by a spell strong enough to crush an identity.

He wasn’t just a runaway omega. He was something hunted. Something powerful. Something dangerous. And the vampires weren’t after Lucien’s Luna at all. They were after him, Devlin. The last descendant of whatever his parents were hiding.

He curled into himself, feeling more alone than ever. If Lucien knew... If the pack discovered... They would fear him. Or worse, reject him entirely. His chest tightened painfully.

"You remembered something."

Devon froze at the voice.

Lucien sat in the dark beside the bed, eyes sharp as moonlight cutting through shadow. He must have been watching him the entire time.

Devon swallowed hard, unable to look him in the eyes.

Lucien leaned forward, voice low.

"Your magic surged again. It nearly broke the containment spell around the house." His fingers tightened around the edge of the mattress. "Tell me what you saw."

Devon’s lips parted, but no sound came.

Lucien’s gaze softened, barely. "Devon... I can’t protect you if you don’t tell me."

Devon flinched at the word. Protect. It suddenly felt like a lie. Like a chain.

"I..." His voice cracked. "I don’t know what I am."

Lucien stood slowly, crossing his arms. "Then we will find out together."

But Devon shook his head, tears blurring his vision. "No. You don’t understand. If you knew what I saw... if you knew what I really am... you’d regret ever marrying me."

He broke.

Devon finally broke.

His breath came out in harsh sobs, and he pressed his forehead to his knees, unable to contain years of fear, blood, rejection, and lost memories.

Lucien froze, not because he was unmoved, but because Devon had never cried in front of anyone. Never allowed himself to collapse.

The Alpha knelt beside him, slowly, carefully, placing a hand on his back.

"Devon," he whispered, "look at me."

But Devon couldn’t. He cried harder instead.

Lucien exhaled, his voice rough. "You don’t have to be strong alone anymore."

Yet just as he reached to pull Devon into an embrace.

The door crashed open.

Rowan stumbled inside, eyes wide with terror.

"Alpha, you need to come to the gates. Now. Another family was found, dead."

Lucien’s hand fell away from Devon. His expression shifted from vulnerable to Alpha in an instant, hard, cold, merciless. The brief tenderness vanished like it had never existed. But as he stood to leave, he whispered without turning back.

"Devon... I will come back. We’re not finished."

Then he was gone, leaving Devon trembling in the dark, clutching a secret the world wanted him dead for.