5

CHAPTER 5: Lyra's POV

“Don't jump out of your bed, girl, you are entirely safe here.”

I bolted upright, a sharp gasp tearing from my throat as my palms slammed against crisp, clean sheets. My whole body throbbed with an intense, burning agony. The deep slashes from the rogue wolves across my ribs felt like fire, and the older, raw cuts from the leather cane across my back stung fiercely against the soft mattress. I looked around wildly, realizing this definitely was not my dark, damp prison cell.

“Where am I?” I demanded, my voice cracking as I pulled the thick blanket tight against my chest. “Who are you?”

A woman with short black hair sat on a wooden chair right near the door. She held a bowl of clean water and a fresh roll of white bandages in her lap.

“You are in the Ironveil pack hospital room,” she said, her voice completely calm as she set the bowl down. “My name is Sable. Our border scouts brought you in last night after you collapsed in the dirt. Alpha Theron ordered me to patch you up and watch over you until morning.”

My pulse took a sudden halt at that specific name. Ironveil. I had heard terrifying rumors about Theron long before last night. His name always came up in fearful whispers back at my old pack. Everyone called Ironveil the one territory that nobody ever wanted to cross because of how ruthless and unforgiving their alpha was known to be to strangers.

“Did you say Alpha Theron?” I asked, my voice shaking as I gripped the edges of the bed. “The monster who slaughters rogues without a second thought?”

Sable stood up and walked closer, her expression neutral. “He is incredibly protective of his borders, yes. But he didn't kill you. In fact, he is right outside waiting to speak with you.”

“I don't want to see him,” I whispered, panic rising in my throat. “Let me leave.”

“You can barely stand, let alone run,” Sable replied, turning toward the entrance. “And you don't keep the Alpha waiting.”

The heavy wooden door pushed open before I could even reply. A very tall man walked into the quiet room. I tensed up on pure instinct, my muscles locking as I prepared for the absolute worst. I fully expected the typical type of Alpha who took whatever he wanted from a female wolf who was too weak to refuse him. I braced myself for the roaring commands and the heavy, crushing pressure of a dominant male trying to break my spirit.

Instead, the man stopped moving several feet away from the edge of my bed. He stood at a completely careful distance, crossing his arms over his broad chest.

“What is your name, stranger?” Theron asked. His voice was surprisingly deep, but he spoke with a calm weight that lacked any immediate threat. He looked directly at me like my actual answer genuinely mattered to him.

I swallowed hard, keeping my jaw locked tightly for a long moment before speaking. “Why do you care about my name? You usually kill people like me on sight.”

“I kill threats to my people,” Theron corrected me plainly, his dark grey eyes locking onto mine with intense focus. “You are barely holding onto your life. You are not a threat to anyone right now. My healer spent hours stitching you up last night, and she found something highly concerning on your body.”

“I don't know what you are talking about,” I lied, looking away from him.

“Do not lie to me,” Theron said, his expression completely unreadable. “She told me you have deep, old bruising layered directly under your fresh rogue wounds. Someone used a leather cane on you repeatedly before you ran into my woods. That did not happen in the wild.”

He stepped an inch closer, the air in the room growing heavier. “I want to know exactly who did that to you.”

I said absolutely nothing. I was far too guarded to hand an absolute stranger my whole life story, especially a powerful alpha who could easily use my past weakness against me. I stared down at the white blanket, my breathing shallow and fast. Yet, something about the steady, quiet way he waited for me without pushing or shouting made my chest tighten in a way I did not understand yet. He wasn't forcing me to speak, and that alone felt completely foreign.

“You do not trust me,” Theron stated, breaking the heavy silence when I remained mute. “That is fair given your condition.”

“I do not trust any alpha,” I snapped, looking up to meet his intense gaze with all the anger I had left. “You are all exactly the same. You use people until they break, and then you throw them in cages.”

“Is that what your previous alpha did to you?” he asked, a small flicker of genuine interest passing through his dark eyes. “He put you in a cage?”

“It doesn't matter,” I muttered, pulling the blanket higher. “I am out now.”

“You are out, but your wounds are reopening,” Theron said, his eyes dropping to my shirt. “Let me see the stitches on your ribs. Sable said they might need adjusting because you keep moving around.”

“I can check them myself,” I whispered, flinching as he took three slow steps toward the side of the mattress. “Do not touch me.”

“Sit still, girl,” Theron murmured, kneeling down beside the low mattress so he was perfectly at eye level with me. “I am just checking the handwork.”

He reached out, his large, rough hands moving with incredible care as he gently pulled back the edge of my oversized shirt to reveal the bandage. The moment his warm fingers brushed against my bare skin, the entire air in the small room completely changed. It felt like a sudden electric current snapped between us, hot and terrifying. My breath caught sharply in my throat, my lungs freezing entirely as a strange wave of heat rushed through my veins.

Theron noticed my reaction instantly. His movements froze completely. His dark grey eyes lifted directly to mine and held there, burning with a sudden, heavy intensity that made my skin flush. For a long, breathless moment, neither one of us moved a single inch. The space between his mouth and my mouth began shrinking without either of us making a conscious decision to close the distance. I could feel the warm heat radiating from his lips, and my heart beat wildly against my ribs.

Theron stopped himself first. His jaw clenched tight, a hard muscle ticking in his cheek as he abruptly stood up and stepped back away from the bed. He looked absolutely furious at his own sudden lack of restraint, his fists tightening at his sides as he shook his head.

“You need to focus on healing your body before anything else happens here,” Theron said, his voice sounding incredibly low and rough. “I am not the kind of man who takes advantage of a wolf who is completely broken.”

He walked slowly toward the heavy wooden door, pausing right at the threshold to look back over his broad shoulder at me.

“Once you are strong again, I will show you exactly what happens to rogue women who venture into my territory,” Theron added, his voice dropping even lower as a haunting smirk formed on his lips.