Chapter 7

Rilla’s POV

"Can you hear me, or are you just pretending?"

The voice was a dull serrated edge against my consciousness. Every inch of my skin felt like it had been scorched and then dragged over gravel. I tried to shift, but my muscles were leaden, pinning me to the mattress. My eyelids felt glued shut by a thick, crusty residue. When I finally forced them open, the world was a blinding, aggressive white.

I flinched, pulling back into the pillows. The light was a physical weight. For years, I had existed in a world of charcoal and damp stone. I knew the smell of mildew and the texture of cold iron, but I had forgotten the sun. This room was too bright, too clean. The air didn't taste like dust and rot. It tasted like nothing.

Maybe I finally gave out, I thought. Maybe the internal bleeding finally won.

"Is this the part where I find out if I'm being punished or rewarded?" I whispered. My throat felt like I had swallowed broken glass.

"It is good to see you are awake, miss," a woman said.

I turned my head. A nurse in crisp scrubs stood by the bed. She was smiling, but it didn't reach her eyes, the way people smile at a stray dog they aren't sure will bite.

"I will go get the doctor," she added, already moving toward the door.

I didn't try to stop her. I just stared at the ceiling. The rhythmic pulse of a heart monitor filled the silence. I wasn't dead. The realization hit me with the force of a physical blow. I was in a hospital. I was still trapped in a body that refused to quit, even when I was done with it.

I looked toward the large glass window. The sky was a mocking, brilliant blue. I wondered how many floors up we were. If I could just crawl over the ledge, I could finish what the others started. I could finally be still.

The door clicked open again. I didn't look up until the footsteps stopped right beside my ear. A man stood there, holding a digital tablet. He looked older, his hair thinner at the temples, but I recognized the set of his jaw immediately.

"How are you feeling, Rilla?" Romilly Vanguard asked.

My name felt like a heavy stone in my mouth. I hadn't heard it in so long. In the pits, I was just a number or a slur. Hearing him say it made me feel like a ghost being summoned back to a grave.

I remembered him from a different life. Seven years ago, I was fifteen and full of stupid, glowing dreams. My grandparents had moved us to the Iron-Vail Pack, and Romilly had been the only one who didn't look at us like we were intruders. I used to follow him around the clinic, tripping over my own feet while asking him how the heart worked or how to stitch a wound. He was patient back then. He used to call me 'little shadow.'

Now, he just looked tired. He didn't look at me like a friend. He looked at me like a complicated puzzle.

"Your injuries are extensive," Romilly said, his voice dropping into a flat, professional tone. "You are a pureblood, which should mean you heal in hours. But your blood is saturated with suppressants and toxins. We drained your system, but the damage is deep. It will take time for your wolf to wake up."

I didn't care about my wolf. I didn't care about my blood.

"Where are they?" I asked. My voice was a dry rasp.

Romilly stopped scrolling through his notes. He didn't need to ask who I meant. "After the Council took you, your grandparents vanished. They left the pack territory within forty-eight hours. No one has seen them since."

A cold, familiar numbness spread through my chest. I wasn't surprised. They were always runners. We never stayed anywhere long enough for the dirt to settle under our fingernails. I used to think it was just their nature, but now I knew better. They were hiding. And when the trouble finally caught me, they did the only thing they knew how to do. They ran.

I was alone. The only friend I ever really had was Rowena, and the thought of her made my heart ache in a way that fractured ribs couldn't match.

"What is your plan, Rilla?" Romilly asked.

I kept my gaze fixed on the window. I couldn't tell him I was looking for the quickest way to hit the pavement. If I mentioned the peace of the void, he would strap me to this bed.

"I don't have one," I said.

Romilly sighed. He stepped closer, lowering his voice until it was barely a murmur. "I don't know what happened to you over these years, but I can guess. You are rare, Rilla. A pureblood female is a prize. The five Alphas who bought you... they didn't do it out of charity. They want heirs. They want the power your bloodline carries."

I didn't blink. I already knew I was being treated like a prize mare.

"There is something they do not realize yet," Romilly continued, his eyes darting toward the door. "Your biology is specific. Because of your lineage, you can only conceive with a fated mate. No one else. I kept that out of the official report. If they find out you are 'broken' for their purposes, they will discard you. And they won't do it gently."

I looked at him then. There was a flicker of the man I used to know in his eyes.

"I owe your grandfather a debt," he said. "I am going to help you get out of here before they come to collect you. I can get you past the pack borders. After that, you are on your own. Do you understand?"

I nodded slowly. He thought he was offering me a second chance at life. He thought I wanted to run. I didn't have the heart to tell him I was just looking for a higher ledge.

"Eat. Sleep. Regain enough strength to walk," Romilly commanded. "I will be back tonight."

He turned and left the room. A minute later, the nurse, Rita, came back in to check my IV. She hummed a little tune as she adjusted the plastic tubing. She seemed so normal, so untouched by the rot of the world.

"What floor is this?" I asked.

Rita smiled. "The seventh. We keep the critical cases up high where it's quiet."

"Is there a roof?"

"Oh, yes," she said, tapping the IV bag. "The building goes up to fifteen floors. There is a garden on the roof for the long-term patients. Once you can stand, I can take you up there. The view of the city is incredible. You can see everything from up there."

I closed my eyes and let out a long, slow breath. The pain in my ribs was duller now, replaced by a strange, sharp clarity.

"I think I would like to see that view very much."