CHAPTER SIX

Serena's POV

The air in the room felt heavy enough to suffocate me.

Dorian’s words hung between us like a physical object, quiet but impossible to ignore. He stood near the door, his sharp brown eyes shifting from Kael in the medical bed to the three year old girl resting on my hip.

Kael did not look away from her. His expression was a mixture of absolute confusion and something raw, something primal that sat just beneath his skin. His wolf was awake, stirring behind those pale grey eyes, searching for a pattern his conscious mind had lost in the blank expanse of four forgotten years.

"Hello," Aria said, completely unfazed by the silence. She tilted her head, her small fingers clutching the collar of my shirt. "Are you sick?"

Kael opened his mouth, then closed it. He looked down at his own hands on the blanket, then back at her face, tracing her jawline and the dark tumble of hair against her neck. "I... I think I was," he murmured. His voice had a strange raspy edge to it that had nothing to do with his physical injuries. "Who are you?"

"I'm Aria," she declared proudly. "I have snacks in the fridge."

"Aria," Kael repeated. The name left his lips like a breath he had been holding for years. A subtle tremor ran through his shoulders. He leaned forward slightly, his gaze fixated on her eyes, those exact cool grey eyes that matched his down to the shade. "You look..."

I did not let him finish that sentence. I couldn't.

"She looks like her mother's family," I interrupted, stepping back toward the door to put distance between them. My voice remained level, controlled, the voice of the Ashveil Pack head strategist, not the woman whose world was crumbling in real time. "Lots of wolves in the northern territories share grey eyes, Alpha Dorian. It isn't uncommon."

Dorian did not argue, but the subtle shift in his jaw told me he had noted my reaction. He was too smart, too observant, and he cared about me too much to miss the sudden rigidity in my spine.

"Lysa is waiting in the hallway," I said, smoothing down Aria's shirt while keeping my eyes firmly away from Kael. "I'll take her outside so we can finish our assessment without distractions."

"Mummy, I want to see the bed," Aria protested, twisting in my arms.

"Not today, sweetheart," I whispered, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. "Lysa has the snacks you wanted."

I turned and walked out of the room before Kael could speak again. The moment I crossed the threshold, Lysa was there. One look at my face was all it took for her to take Aria from my arms without asking a single question. Her sharp eyes darted past me toward the open door of the clinic, full of protective anger.

"Go," Lysa whispered quietly, her hand coming up to touch my arm. "I'll take her home."

I gave her a small nod, took two deep breaths to settle my racing heart, and turned around to step back into the room.

Dorian was standing near the foot of the bed now. The easy warmth he usually carried had been replaced by the quiet authority of an Alpha assessing a potential threat to his territory. Kael was still sitting up, his gaze glued to the doorway where Aria had vanished, looking like a man who had seen a ghost he couldn't name.

"We need to decide how to handle your presence here, Alpha Blackthorn," Dorian began, his voice calm and deliberate. "A rogue on our border is one thing. An incapacitated Alpha from the largest pack in the north is another entirely."

Kael tore his eyes away from the empty doorway, shaking his head slightly as if trying to clear a thick fog. "I understand. I am in no position to make demands."

Dorian turned his head toward me. "Serena, what is your recommendation?"

The question was strategic, but the look Dorian gave me held something deeper. He was asking for my official stance, but he was also checking to see if I was compromised.

I looked at Kael. He looked back at me, vulnerable in a way the Alpha of the Blackthorn Pack had never been allowed to be. Without his memories, without the elders whispering in his ear, he was just a man asking for shelter. But more than that, I needed him where I could see him. If I sent him away now, or if we alerted the Blackthorn Pack blindly, I wouldn't be able to control what came next.

"We keep him here," I said, my voice firm. "At least until he is physically capable of defending himself, and until we determine who put him in that state at our border. An unstable Blackthorn Pack on our western line is a liability for Ashveil. Hosting him under surveillance gives us intelligence and leverage."

Dorian searched my face for a long moment. Whatever he was looking for, he seemed satisfied with what he found.

"Agreed," Dorian said. "He stays in the clinic until the healer clears him, then we move him to the guest quarters under light guard." He looked back at Kael. "You are our guest, Blackthorn. But you will cooperate with Serena's investigation."

"I will," Kael said quietly. His eyes drifted back to me, lingering on my face with a quiet intensity that made my skin prickle. "Thank you, Serena."

Hearing my name on his lips felt like an open flame against an unhealed burn.

Night fell over Ashveil territory with a heavy, cool stillness.

I sat at the wooden table in my small house, a single lamp lit beside a stack of border patrol reports. Outside, the wind rattled the windowpanes, but inside, the only sound was the soft, rhythmic breathing of my daughter sleeping in the adjacent room.

Lysa sat across from me, a mug of herbal tea untouched in her hands.

"He didn't recognize you at all?" Lysa asked softly.

"Not even a little," I replied, staring at my folded hands. "He asked if I was the nurse. He smiled at me the way he used to smile at strangers when he was being polite."

Lysa cursed under her breath. "And Aria?"

"He felt something," I confessed, my voice barely above a whisper. "His wolf reacted. He couldn't take his eyes off her. And Dorian noticed the eyes, Lysa. Dorian isn't blind."

Lysa leaned forward, placing her hand over mine. "Serena, if Kael stays here, he is going to see her again. This pack isn't big enough to hide a child who looks like his carbon copy, especially not when Dorian is already looking closely."

"I know," I said, closing my eyes.

The timeline I had constructed in my head, the safe distance I had built over three years, was gone. Kael Blackthorn was sleeping less than a mile away in our medical wing. He didn't remember rejecting me. He didn't remember the papers, the cold pack hall, or the way he turned his back on me while I stood in a ruined white dress.

He was blank slate. But I was not.

I stood up, walked quietly into Aria's room, and stood beside her small bed. I reached down, pushing a stray lock of dark hair away from her forehead. She stirred slightly, letting out a small sigh, her long eyelashes resting against her cheeks.

He destroyed me three years ago, I thought, watching her breathe. And now he is here, looking at me with gentle eyes, completely innocent of what he did.

I pulled the blanket up over my daughter's shoulders. The clock was ticking, and I knew one thing with absolute certainty.

The peace I had built in Ashveil was over.