Woke clutching auntie, oddly, in fear (5)
I believe the answer is:
panic
'fear' is the definition.
(panicking is a kind of fearing)
'woke clutching auntie oddly' is the wordplay.
'woke' becomes 'pc' (abbreviation for politically correct).
'clutching' is an insertion indicator.
'oddly' means one should take alternating letters (letters in the odd-numbered positions are used).
The alternate letters of 'auntie' are 'ani'.
'pc' going around 'ani' is 'PANIC'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for panic that I've seen before include "much unease" , "Horror" , "Grass" , "Alarm, scare" , "State of overwhelming fear" .)