Fragile, Yet Ours

Fragile, Yet Ours

Liora POV 

I woke up on a soft bed with clean white sheets, my mouth still tasting like copper and blood. A woman with kind eyes was pressing a cool cloth to my forehead.

"There you are, dear," she said gently. "I'm Mira, the pack healer. How are you feeling?"

"Tired," I whispered, my voice hoarse from all the coughing. "What happened to me?"

Before she could answer, all three Alphas burst through the door. Their faces were tight with worry and something else - anger, maybe, or fear.

"What's wrong with her?" Alpha Rowan demanded, his voice sharp.

Mira shook her head slowly. "I don't know. Her lungs are clear, her heart sounds normal. But she's severely malnourished and exhausted. Whatever caused the bleeding, there's nothing I can identify."

"That's not good enough," Alpha Riven snapped, pacing back and forth like a caged animal. "There has to be something."

"Maybe," Alpha Ronan said quietly, "the problem isn't physical."

All eyes turned to me, and I wanted to disappear under the blankets.

"We need to talk," Alpha Rowan said to me. "Alone."

Mira gathered her supplies and left, giving me one last reassuring smile. The moment the door closed, the three Alphas surrounded my bed.

"Why can't you shift?" Alpha Damon asked directly.

I blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Your wolf," Alpha Riven said impatiently. "Why haven't you shifted into your wolf form?"

"I... I don't know how," I admitted, my face burning with shame.

The three brothers exchanged looks.

"What do you mean you don't know how?" Alpha Rowan's voice was dangerously quiet.

"I've never done it before," I whispered. "I don't even know what it feels like."

"That's impossible," Alpha Damon said. "Every wolf shifts by their sixteenth birthday."

"I'm twenty-one," I said quietly. "I've never shifted. Not even once."

The silence in the room was deafening.

"Can you feel your wolf?" Alpha Ronan asked, his voice gentler than his brothers'.

I shook my head. "I don't know what that means."

"The voice in your head," Alpha Riven explained, his patience clearly wearing thin. "The part of you that's wild and wants to run and hunt."

"I don't have a voice in my head," I said, confused. "Just... me."

Alpha Rowan ran his hands through his hair, looking frustrated. "This explains why the mate bond feels incomplete. If her wolf is dormant or blocked somehow..."

"That's not possible," Alpha Damon insisted. "Wolves don't just disappear."

"Maybe they do if you abuse them enough," Alpha Ronan said quietly, and his words made me flinch.

"What did they do to you?" Alpha Rowan asked, sitting on the edge of my bed. "Your aunt and uncle. What exactly did they do?"

"Nothing terrible," I said quickly. "They just... they said my wolf was cursed. That it was better if it stayed hidden."

"How?" Alpha Riven demanded. "How did they keep your wolf hidden?"

I tried to remember, but everything from my childhood was fuzzy and painful. "There were herbs," I said slowly. "Aunt Meredith made me drink tea every morning. She said it would keep the curse from spreading."

All three Alphas went very still.

"What kind of herbs?" Alpha Rowan's voice was deadly calm.

"I don't know," I whispered. "They were bitter and made me sick, but she said I had to drink them or terrible things would happen."

Alpha Riven let out a roar of rage that made me jump. "They poisoned her! They've been poisoning her wolf for years!"

"That's why she's so weak," Alpha Damon realized. "That's why she can't shift. They've been suppressing her wolf since she was a child."

"Those monsters," Alpha Ronan growled. "No wonder she's barely alive."

I didn't understand what they were so angry about. Aunt Meredith had been protecting everyone from my curse, hadn't she?

"It doesn't matter now," Alpha Rowan said, his voice becoming possessive. "What matters is keeping her safe while her wolf recovers."

"How long will that take?" Alpha Damon asked.

"Months, maybe years," Alpha Rowan replied. "And until then, she's completely vulnerable."

That's when something changed in their expressions. They looked at me like I was made of glass, like I might break if they breathed too hard.

"No one else can see her," Alpha Rowan declared. "She stays in our private wing, under our protection, until she's strong enough to defend herself."

"Wait," I said, trying to sit up. "You can't lock me away like a prisoner."

"We can and we will," Alpha Riven said firmly. "You almost died tonight. You're not safe around the pack."

"But I need fresh air, and sunlight, and.."

"You need us," Alpha Rowan interrupted. "Only us."

From that night on, I was moved to their private wing of the house. It was beautiful but felt like a cage. The brothers took turns watching me, and they started arguing constantly about everything.

"I should be the one feeding her," Alpha Riven insisted one morning.

"You made her nervous yesterday," Alpha Damon replied. "I should do it."

"Both of you are too intense," Alpha Ronan said. "She needs gentleness."

They argued over who got to bring me meals, who got to sit with me, who got to talk to me. It was like I wasn't even a person anymore, just something they owned.

At night, I could hear them outside my door, taking shifts to guard me. Sometimes they argued in whispers about which one of them I liked best, or who I looked at the longest during meals.

It was suffocating.

After two weeks of being trapped, I couldn't take it anymore. I waited until the middle of the night, when I could hear Alpha Ronan's steady breathing outside my door. He was asleep.

Carefully, quietly, I slipped out of bed and tiptoed to the window. The drop was scary, but not impossible. I just needed to get outside, to breathe free air for a few minutes.

I managed to climb down without making too much noise and started walking toward the forest. The cool night air felt amazing on my skin, and for the first time in weeks, I could breathe properly.

I was so focused on my freedom that I didn't notice the shadow moving behind me until it was too late.

A hand clamped over my mouth, and I was pulled back against a hard chest. I tried to scream, but the hand was too strong.

"Shh," a voice whispered in my ear, and I could see red eyes glowing in the darkness. "Don't struggle, little wolf. The triplets stole what doesn't belong to them."

Before I could even think about fighting back, everything went black..