Chapter Eight

Leo’s POV

Amnesia.

The word hit my ears like a heavy punch. I ran a shaky hand through my hair, my inner wolf howling in pure frustration inside my head. She didn't remember me. When she looked at me earlier, there was no recognition in her warm eyes..only deep, terrifying fear.

It was 9:00 PM. The private room was dead quiet, lit only by the soft, blue glow of the wall monitors. Ivy was fast asleep, her tiny chest rising and falling beneath the stiff white sheets. I sat in the chair right beside her bed, staring at her pale face. I couldn't stop my mind from replaying the terror of this morning over and over again. The way she had screamed at the top of her lungs. The way she had squeezed herself against the headboard, shaking violently as if I were a monster coming to tear her apart.

I reached out slowly, taking her cold, small hand in mine. I squeezed her palm gently, sending a warm, steady wave of my Royal Alpha healing energy directly into her skin. I wanted to soothe her injured body, help her heal faster, and calm the wild, raging beast trapped inside my own chest.

I bent forward, resting my forehead lightly against the back of her hand.

“I promise you,” I whispered into the quiet night, my voice low and dark with an unbreakable vow, “I will make sure everyone who laid a finger on you pays. Every single one of them.”

Suddenly, my phone buzzed in my pocket, ruining the silence. I slipped my hand away from hers and pulled the phone out. It was Sam.

"Speak," I said quietly into the receiver.

"Leo, I just got the first report on Ivy’s past," Sam said, his voice sounding completely puzzled over the line. "Her pack's official records say she was an Omega. But the doctor's deep body scans show she has no wolf connection at all. She was basically living as a regular human."

I turned my head and looked down at her still, quiet body resting on the mattress. My eyebrows pulled together into a deep frown.

As a Royal Alpha, my senses were far stronger than those of ordinary wolves. I could smell different bloodlines just by breathing in the air around them. Right now, even in her weak, beaten state, I could smell a strange, ancient scent clinging to her skin..something soft, powerful, and completely different from a normal wolf or human.

"Keep digging," I told Sam, my jaw tightening into a hard line. "Check her mother's side and trace her bloodline as far back as you can. There is more to her than a fake Omega title."

"Understood, Leo. I'll call you the second I find something," Sam replied before hanging up.

A second later, the door handle turned softly, and Doctor Rachel walked in to do her night rounds. I stood back, watching in silence as she checked the clear fluid dripping into Ivy's IV line and read the pulsing numbers on the screen.

"Doctor," I broke the silence, my voice rough. "Is it possible for someone's wolf to stay dormant?"

Doctor Rachel stopped her work and turned to look at me, thinking carefully. "Yes, Your Highness. I have seen rare cases where a person’s wolf cannot come out because of terrible physical hurt or hidden genes. But your mate's situation is strange. With most people whose wolves stay dormant, our spiritual scans can still find tiny sparks of a wolf spirit attached to their soul. But Miss Ivy shows no signs of a wolf at all. It is like she is purely human, which makes no sense, because both her parents are pureblood wolves."

"I see," I murmured, my eyes drifting back to Ivy's quiet face as the mystery around her grew thicker.

Doctor Rachel looked up at me with real worry written across her forehead. "Your Highness, we have to handle her with soft hands. Normally, a female wolf's inner beast heals her body and fixes her mind after a bad shock. But without a wolf to speed up her healing, supernatural magic won't work here. We have to rely on regular human medicine, enough rest and patience."

I swallowed hard, feeling a cold, heavy weight settle deep in my chest like a block of ice. I stared at the fragile girl carrying my baby.

Without a wolf to mend her broken mind, time was the only thing we had left. But as I watched her twitch uncomfortably in her sleep, a scary thought crept into my mind, bringing a deep horror far worse than any enemy I had ever fought on a battlefield.

What scared me most was the quiet, agonizing question echoing in my mind... what if she never recovered? What if she never remembers?