MasukAuroraLucas is sitting behind the wheel with his eyes fixed straight ahead as we drive to meet James. The road passes in blurred streaks, trees and signs smearing together like my thoughts. There is too much happening in my head for me to settle on one thing. Memories bump into questions. Fear presses up against hope. It all feels like a tangled knot that I cannot separate, only hold.I keep glancing at his profile, the way his jaw tightens and relaxes, the tiny muscle in his cheek that flickers every time he blinks. He looks calm, but I know him well enough to see what hides underneath. His hands grip the wheel, not hard, just enough to show he is holding onto something. Maybe that something is me.I stare out the window again. I know whatever I find out today will change everything. I can feel it in my chest, in the slow pull of each breath. My entire life feels like it is standing on a thin line, waiting for the next step. I do not know if I am ready to hear the truth, or if I wil
AuroraI sit on the edge of the bed, knees pressed together, staring at the same knot in the wooden floorboard I have been staring at for hours. Its grain twists like it’s mocking me, like it knows something I do not. My fingers curl around the blanket, twisting it in little loops, tugging it just enough to hear the faint rip of fibers but never hard enough to break them. The blanket smells faintly of detergent and Lucas.It is something for my hands to do while the rest of me sits here, trying to understand myself.I do not know how to feel. I do not know how to react. My own emotions feel like strangers sitting in my chest. Half of them do not even feel like mine anymore. It is like someone else is tugging at invisible strings attached to me. Someone else is pressing feelings into me that do not belong to me.I never used to doubt myself like this. But now every thought I have is followed by a question mark. Did I feel this, or did someone make me feel it? Am I scared or did someone
LucasAurora watches Ryan for a few more moments, and I can see her thoughts moving behind her eyes. Not fast. Not chaotic. Slow enough that it feels like she is placing each one in neat rows somewhere inside her mind, saving them for later. She has always done this. She sorts her emotions before she lets anyone see them. And right now, she is building quiet compartments for every feeling she does not want spilling out.Then she looks at me.Just that small shift of her eyes toward mine sends a jolt through my chest. Sharp and immediate. My lungs trip over themselves for a second. Her gaze connects with mine, and it feels like something inside me jumps awake in one violent motion.This girl has no idea what she does to me.Her voice leaves her lips so softly it feels like it lands directly on my skin. “Why isn’t he up yet?”Her brows draw together with the faintest frown, and she turns her attention back to Ryan. “He is a wolf like you. Aren’t you supposed to heal fast?”I remember th
LucasThe path to the infirmary feels longer than usual. I am not sure if it is actually longer or if it is just this silence stretching it out. Silence can do that. It can make a familiar place feel foreign. It can turn a ten-second walk into something that feels like a slow drip through time.Aurora walks beside me, but she might as well be a hundred feet away. Her steps are quiet, almost measured, not rushed, not hesitant, just there. Her arms stay close to her body. Her hands are not in fists, but they look empty in a way that makes my chest twist.She has not said a word since we stepped out of the room.Not one.And the absence of her voice feels like a missing piece of air.My eyes keep flicking toward her. It is not something I control. It is something my body just does. A reflex. A pull. My instincts tune to her movements, her breathing, the way her shoulders sit just a little too straight. She is not tense. She is not relaxed. She is something in between that does not belong
Lucas“I manipulated you. I manipulated your feelings and emotions.”The words leave my mouth and hang there like something physical. Something with mass. I can almost imagine it shifting the air between us, tilting it, bending it, forcing it to change shape. Her eyes flicker, the smallest movement, but my mind catches it before it is even fully formed. She breathes in a little sharper, like her lungs need a second to understand what they are supposed to do next.Her fingers curl slightly at her sides. Not a fist. Not tension. More like her body is trying to find a place to put the feeling that hit her.She blinks once. Slowly. Her lashes touch her cheeks and lift again, as if her brain needed the moment between to recalibrate. Her chest rises on a long inhale, and I watch the expansion, the quiet lift, the slow fall. She does not move back. She does not move forward. She stays exactly where she is, which tells me more than any reaction she could have thrown at me.Her reaction is not
LucasAurora wakes up like the world just tilted under her. One sharp inhale, one jerk forward, and she is sitting upright in the bed, her eyes scanning the room like something chased her all the way out of sleep.Her hair is a mess of waves around her face. I can tell she does not even feel them, because her eyes are moving too fast. Searching. Counting shadows. Counting the places where someone could be standing. Her brain is still half in the dream, half in whatever memory dragged her awake.Then her gaze hits mine.Everything inside her shifts.Her next breath is not panic. It is relief that cracks and spills out of her so quickly her shoulders tremble with it. She is on her feet before the mattress even finishes its soft exhale from losing her weight.Her eyes widen, shining in the dim light. "Lucas." My name hits the air with a tremble. She crosses the space between us so fast the mattress barely has time to sigh. She throws herself at me, arms winding tight around my body, her







