LOGINDiego's POV What She SawI heard it before I saw her.I had come down the east wing for the contracts Petra had left on the side table outside the storage room. Straightforward errand. Two minutes at most. I was already thinking about the afternoon meeting when I passed the music room and stopped.The piano.I stood in the corridor and listened because I couldn't immediately explain what I was hearing. Not the playing itself, though that was unexpected enough. It was the quality of it. Hesitant at first, one note and then another, like someone feeling for a path in the dark. Then it found itself.I did not go in.I don't know how long I stood there. Long enough that I should have moved on. Long enough that my wolf had gone completely, utterly still inside me, the way he went still sometimes in the forest just before dawn when everything paused and even the wind held itself.I stayed because I told myself I was listening for something specific. For whether she was remembering. That wa
Lyra’s POV I closed the door behind me and stood in the corridor for a moment.The walk back to my room felt longer than it was. It was because of the distance. Because of the weight I was carrying back with me that I hadn't arrived with. I had gone to that study with a question. I was returning with an answer that felt worse than the not knowing.No one important gets left the way you were left.I pressed my lips together and kept walking.I had told myself, going up those stairs, that whatever he said I would hold myself together. That I was done falling apart over things I couldn't control. That I had survived waking up in a strange pack house with no name and no face and no past and I could survive a cold man saying cold things in a cold room.I reached my door and pushed it open and sat on the edge of the bed and the groan that came out of me was quiet and tight and had nothing dignified in it.Nobody came.Eight weeks. Not a single person. Not a call, not a letter, not a wolf s
Diego's POV The Truth He Chooses"Sit down."She didn't move immediately. Just stood there with her hand still flat against her thigh, her chin at that angle. Like she was deciding whether the instruction was worth following now that she'd already won the harder argument.Then she found the chair. Fingers grazing the armrest once, and she sat.I looked at her for a moment longer than I should have.The report had been sitting in the left drawer of this desk for three days. Dr. Reeves had delivered it himself, which he only did when he considered the contents too sensitive for normal channels. He'd stood exactly where Lyra was sitting now, folder in hand, clearing his throat the way men do when they're about to say something the listener won't enjoy."The amnesia," he'd said. "We can't confirm it's permanent. Trauma-induced loss of this severity. it has a pattern. The brain protects itself first. Shuts everything out. But over time, with stability, with safety, it starts to." He'd pau
Lyra’s POV The bandage was too tight.Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe that was just what a burn felt like when the numbing wore off and the night got quiet enough for your body to start reporting everything it had been holding. I sat on the edge of the bed and looked at my hand and tried to remember the last time something had hurt this cleanly. This without complication. Pain with a source you could point to was almost a relief.The rest of it had no source. That was the problem.I didn't know my last name.I'd been sitting with that fact for weeks now and it still didn't fit anywhere. It just floated. Unattached. Every morning I woke up and reached for something that should have been there, the way you reach for a glass of water in the dark and find only air, and every morning the reaching came back empty.My wolf stirred against my ribs. Low. Restless."I know," I said quietly.She settled, but not completely.I flexed my unbandaged hand slowly. Looked at the ceiling. The room they'd gi
Diego's POV "The eastern shift is the problem," Klaus said. "If Crest moves another two miles we lose the river access entirely.""Mm.""Diego.""I heard you. River access."Klaus looked at me. I wasn't looking at the report anymore.I didn't decide to stop. It just happened, the way things happen when your body stops taking instructions. My eyes had drifted across the table to where Lyra sat, her burned hand cradled in her lap, her head tipped slightly downward. The way she held herself was careful.Like someone who had learned a long time ago that taking up space came with consequences.The mark on her cheek had settled into something darker. My lips were slightly parted and I couldn't help but noticed how her lashes were low, her mouth slightly pressed together. The The morning light came through the window behind her and caught the edge of her jaw, the curve of her shoulder, the way her fingers curled gently around her own wrist like she was holding herself together from the ou
Diego's POVA sharp exhale forced it's way out of my lips, as I stood up from the bath, my back already aching. I didn't even sit to get my my eyes accustomed to the ray of the sun, I just dragged my feet to the bathroom. I needed to wash off the exhaustion that clung on me. The bath did nothing.I ran it cold. Stood there until my skin stopped feeling like it belonged to me, until the thing sitting behind my ribs settled into something more silent. Then I dressed, didn't look at myself too long, and went downstairs.Mandy was already at the table. She was dressed in a silk robe, her hair pinned and both hands wrapped around her tea like she'd been waiting there for hours and found it perfectly reasonable. She looked up when I walked in."Morning," she greeted warmly, like I hadn't sent her out and dismissed her intentions. Anyway, she was paid well to attend to my needs, and she knew well that whatever she felt that night was inconsequential. "Morning." I pulled out my chair and
Lyra's POV"You will be discharged today."Doctor Ifeanyi's words settled over me like the first cold breath of a season changing. I looked at him, searching his face for something more. An explanation. A direction. Anything that would tell me what discharged meant for a woman with no name, no past
Diego’s POVThe cold night bit into my skin as I walked toward the car. The driver started the engine, headlights slicing through the fog. I just wanted to leave that damned pack and everything it reeked of, mostly Kendrick’s smug. I had barely opened the car door when his voice cut through the ni
Lyra's POVI stood close to the window, my fingers grazing the cool glass. The faint glow of the moon shimmered across the perfectly mowed lawn. I could barely make out its outline, but it was enough to remind me of what I’d lost—and what little I still had.A warm hand settled on my shoulder, stea
Lyra’s POV The kiss had started slowly, just enough for his tongue to dominate my mouth, his hazel eyes burning into mine. I couldn’t hold his gaze for long—it was too intense. So I shut my eyes, letting the warmth of his lips drown me, savoring the moment as though it might be the last. This wa







