AlinaI didn’t know how I was still alive. Some days it felt like my body was too broken to carry me another breath, and other days the silence of my cell pressed so thickly around me that I thought maybe I was already dead and didn’t know it yet. But tonight, I felt something faint—so faint I almost thought it was a trick of my mind. The bond. That delicate thread I thought I had lost completely, pulsing just the tiniest bit inside me like a flickering ember buried under ash.I didn’t know if that was good or bad. My chest ached with the thought that it might mean Damian was alive somewhere… but if he was alive, then why wasn’t he here? Why wasn’t he tearing down these walls to get me out of this hell?The iron door screeched open, dragging across the floor like a scream, and I stiffened. My wrists ached against the shackles, but I sat up straighter, forcing myself not to tremble even though my whole body screamed at me to.Darius stepped in.Even with the dim torchlight, I could see
DamianI lowered myself slowly to the ground, my knees brushing the cold stone floor as my hand hovered above the scattered pile. My fingers trembled when they closed around one of the pictures that had slipped free from the stack. The edges were frayed, as if someone had handled it too often, too roughly. When I turned it over, the breath froze in my chest.Alina.Even if her face wasn’t clear, blurred in parts as though the ink itself had been smeared by careless fingers, I knew it. My body knew it. The curve of her hair, the tilt of her shoulders, the outline of her frame—it was her. My mate.Shock hit me hard, like the crack of a whip, rattling through the emptiness that had lived inside me since memory had been stripped away. Images flitted across my mind—nothing concrete, nothing whole—but flashes of warmth, her scent, the shadow of a laugh that belonged to her.I clutched the photograph as though it might disintegrate if I let go. My head pounded with the force of memories that
DamianI stared at Logan like he had grown two heads. “Are you the one having memory loss, Logan? Because the last I checked, I haven’t ascended the throne. I’m not the Alpha yet.”His jaw clenched, and I saw that flicker in his eyes—the one that told me he was hiding something bigger than he wanted to admit.“There’s a lot you don’t know, Damian,” he said quietly.I scoffed, shaking my head. “Don’t start with riddles. Lucas told me everything already, and I know when my brother is lying to me. He wasn’t.”Logan’s expression shifted, almost desperate. “Please, Damian. Just—listen to me. Five minutes, that’s all I’m asking. Five minutes of silence, and I’ll tell you everything I can.”I folded my arms across my chest, glaring at him. My chest felt heavy with anger and confusion, but still, I didn’t move.He took my silence as agreement. Without another word, Logan strode across the room and shut the door firmly. The click echoed like a warning, and I frowned when I saw him lock it, sli
DamianLucas hummed as he folded my clothes, one after another, with an ease that grated on my nerves. His movements were too calm, too careful, like he was performing some kind of ritual instead of just shoving my things into a bag. I blinked, trying to make sense of what I was seeing, and finally croaked out, “Why are you packing my outfits yourself?”Lucas didn’t look up, just smoothed the shirt he held and placed it neatly in the stack. “Because we’re leaving,” he said, like it was the most natural thing in the world. “You’re coming back to the pack house.”I pushed myself upright on the bed, frowning. “You’re doing this wrong.”“Doing what wrong?” His lips twitched with a smile that felt out of place.“This.” I gestured at him, at his careful hands, at the almost gentle expression on his face. “Acting like this. You’re supposed to shove the clothes into a bag, grumble about me being spoiled, tell me to do it myself. You don’t… you don’t act like this, Lucas. This… affection thing
DamianI woke up to blinding white. For a long second, I thought I was dead, floating somewhere between nothingness and light, but the sharp ache in my chest reminded me I was still alive. My body was heavy, like it belonged to someone else. I tried to push myself up, but the weight dragged me back down.“Damian,” a voice mumbled, low but urgent.My head jerked toward the sound. Logan. He sat in the corner, his arms folded tight like he was bracing himself. His face looked pale, his eyes restless.“Calm down,” he said quickly, getting up and pressing me back against the bed when I tried again to sit. “You need to breathe. Don’t push yourself.”I frowned. My throat burned when I spoke. “Where… where am I?”His lips parted, hesitation flickering across his face. “Someone found you. You were drowning… they pulled you out before it was too late.”Drowning? My chest tightened as I tried to swallow the words. Drowning made no sense. The last thing I remembered was—My breath caught. My mind
AlinaI couldn’t breathe.It felt as if the air itself was pressing against my ribs, like invisible hands were squeezing my chest, crushing me from the inside out. My lungs screamed for air, but every inhale was shallow, broken, and jagged. I blinked, but the world tilted, black spots dancing in the corners of my vision.The cold of the floor seeped into my bones, but worse was the ache. Not the kind that dulled after a while—no, this was the kind of pain that lingered, sharp and endless, the kind that reminded you you were alive only to torment you with that fact.I forced myself to sit upright, or at least try. My wrists ached where the restraints bound me, and every small movement made them bite into my skin. It wasn’t just my body that hurt—it was my head too, like my skull was filled with fog, heavy and suffocating. I tried to concentrate, to remember what I’d learned—spells, tricks, anything that might give me a way out—but nothing made sense. My mind was like water slipping thr