10~ MORNING AFTER

10: MORNING AFTER

SAGE

The first thing I noticed was that I could breathe well, and that breath is way faster than I can even grasp.

For a long moment, I just lay there, not daring to move. My chest rose and fell with ease, no stabbing pain, no choking gasp.

My body didn’t feel heavy anymore. It felt… wrong, almost too light.

“Oh, maybe I am finally dead.” I thought as I opened my eyes and stared at the familiar ceiling now staring me right back at me

I didn't want to believe this, so I slowly sat up. The sheets beneath me were soft, warmer than I remembered anything ever being.

“I’m still alive?” I thought

“Why?”

My heart gave a strange throb, and I pressed my palm to my chest, startled. The beat that echoed against my skin didn’t feel like mine.

It was… louder and stronger as if something foreign thumped there, in the hollow of my chest.

A chill crept down my spine. Then I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, my muscles trembling as I tried to stand. The room tilted for a moment, and then I felt the presence.

It swept toward me like a storm breaking through the door. My head snapped up, and there Knight stood.

He stood just inside the room, his eyes catching the morning light, gleaming like a predator’s. My breath caught, frozen in my throat.

“You are finally awake.” His voice was rough.

I tried to speak, but my throat burned. A strangled rasp escaped, nothing more, and I flinched from the pain.

His gaze narrowed. “Maybe if you stop hurting yourself, you will get that voice back.”

I pressed my lips together and pushed myself back against the headboard, trying to put distance between us.

He noticed and he stopped leaning forward, his large frame going still.

“Easy.” His voice dropped lower, quieter. “I saved you. I am not here to kill you.”

I didn’t trust him one bit, my heart was hammering so hard I felt dizzy. I glanced around the room desperately, looking for something to write with, anything to tell him what I was thinking.

He sighed like he was tired of me already, pulled something from his pocket, and tossed it toward me. His phone.

“Say your mind,” he said simply.

I grabbed it, my hands trembling as I typed with quick, sharp strokes.

”Why did you save me?”

He leaned back against the wall, folding his arms across his chest, and stared at me with those impossible eyes.

“Because I had no choice. You are in my pack and I still don’t know what you are.”

I bit the inside of my cheek, anger bubbling up through my chest. I typed again, harder this time.

“I didn’t want to live. Why couldn’t you just let me go?”

For a moment, his expression changed just a flicker, but enough to make me hold my breath.

“Why exactly do you want to die?”

I threw the phone back at him. I didn’t owe him my pain.

He caught it easily, his lips twisting in something that wasn’t quite a smile.

“You are lucky I am even asking,” he muttered.

“I am not a patient man and my beast is dangerous.” His fingers tapped against his chest. “If you keep pushing, you will see just how fast he can lose control.”

I grabbed the phone again, my fingers shaking but defiant as I typed.

“Then let him lose it. I don’t care. I want to die anyway.”

The moment he read it, something shifted. His aura slammed into me, his eyes burned hotter, darker, and for a split second, I swore I saw them flash red.

“You think this is just about you?” His voice was a growl now, deep and guttural, vibrating in the air

“Listen carefully, Sage. I saved you with my Lupin Soul. So if you think about dying, you will drag me down with you. So don't you dare try anything stupid, you will not just end yourself but kill me too.”

My stomach dropped, my blood turning to ice. What

I typed quickly, desperate now.

“I never asked you to save me.”

“No,” he snapped, stepping closer. “But I did anyway. Because I need answers. Because I need to know if you’re a threat or something worse. But until I know, nothing must happen to my Lupin Soul.”

My fingers hovered over the screen, then moved, slow and trembling.

“Then why give it to me? What makes me so important?”

He was in front of me now, so close I could feel the heat of him, the wild power rolling off his skin.

“Because you are mine.” His voice dropped almost inhumanly. “You belong to me.” I froze, staring at him as he continued.

“And you will take your place as Luna of the Storvack Pack…. As my mate.”

My breath caught so hard it hurt as I tried to recap what he had just said.

“Luna. Of Storvack…. His mate? He is my mate? I am his mate?” I was more than confused.

I shook my head, unable to stop myself. This couldn’t be real. This was the Alpha everyone feared, the one who ruled like a beast, who let no outsider leave alive. His territory was a death sentence and he was telling me I would rule by his side as his fated mate.