Chapter 4

AURORA'S POV

The drive to the Shadowpine Pack clinic was short, and I sighed when I stepped into the space, which reeked of blood and antiseptic.

I pushed through the front doors, used to the smell as I headed straight for my office.

"Aurora?"

I turned back to see Dr. Lyra Montgomery, who had appeared beside me.

Her honey-colored hair was pulled back into a ponytail I felt was too tight.

"You're here early."

"I couldn't sleep."

I dropped my bag on my desk and instantly reached for the stack of patient charts, grateful for the familiar routine.

"What do we have today?"

Lyra studied me with the intense focus she usually reserved for complex diagnoses.

"Are you okay? You seem different."

“How do? Different as in oh your test came back okay or you have just five day more to live different?” I asked her, forcing a chuckle.

Her eyes didn’t leave mine as she replied, "Different as in, Luna Aurora resumed work this early after taking a break after Asher’s birth!”

"Let’s just say, I was pulled back to the version I was before I became just a wife and mother."

I flipped open the first chart, "Mrs. Peterson's test results came back. Did you review them?" I said, changing the subject.

"Yes, but Aurora." Lyra started, touching my arm, "What's going on? Yesterday you were stressed about Alaric's first love moving in. Today you're acting like it doesn't matter."

"It doesn't matter." The words came easier than I expected. "Now, Mrs. Peterson. What's your assessment?"

Lyra hesitated before she launched into her analysis, and we spent the next eight hours working through patient after patient.

I took on complex cases I would have previously deferred to the senior doctors.

My mind felt unburdened by the constant worry of pleasing my husband and maintaining our perfect family image.

This was who I used to be.

This was who I would be again.

It was dark by the time I returned home, and I could hear laughter emanating from inside the warmly lit house as I parked my car.

The dining room table was set with candles flickering in crystal holders.

Seraphina was at the head of the table, serving what looked like my pot roast recipe.

"Aurora! You're home!" She was smiling so brightly that it irked me, "I made your favorite dinner. I wanted to thank you properly for your generosity."

I looked at the pot roast and then at Alaric, who had a pleased expression.

This wasn't my favorite.

I hated pot roast.

But Alaric loved it so I used to make it once every week to please him.

I pushed down the rage in me and forced a smile at both of them.

"How thoughtful,” I hung my jacket on the back of my chair and took a seat.

"Though actually, my favorite is the salmon with dill sauce. But this looks lovely."

Seraphina's smile faltered, "Oh. I thought Alaric said…"

"He must have been thinking of his favorite," I spat as I served myself a small portion. "An honest mistake."

Seraphina began to serve Alaric, placing things after things on his plate.

He smiled at her, accepting everything without even a bit of restraint.

I beheld the growing intimacy between both with indifference because I had mourned my marriage already in my previous life.

Dinner passed in uncomfortable silence as Asher chattered about his day.

But both Alaric and Seraphina kept stealing glances at me, expecting something—anger, jealousy, or the emotional breakdown I had had in my previous life.

I gave them nothing but polite distance and excused myself after dinner to go and review more of my patient files.

I had just closed my bedroom door when footsteps approached in the hallway.

"Aurora," Alaric's worried voice came through the wood. "Can we talk?"

I opened the door to see him standing there with dark, troubled eyes, still handsome in his black shirt and blue jeans.

A part of me instantly remembered loving this man desperately.

But the rest of me remembered dying while he celebrated with another woman.

"What is it?" I asked.

"What's happening to us? You've been different since yesterday."

I said nothing and continued, reaching for my hand, "You've been cold and distant.”

I stepped back before he could touch me, and something flickered in his eyes…pain? But there was something else too.

I frowned as it disappeared before I could see it.

“Aurora?”

"Nothing is happening, Alaric,” I kept my voice steady, "I am simply trying to focus on my work. You should do the same too."

"Aurora, please talk to me…”His voice carried a note of desperation.

Another flashback to when I laid down on the surgical bed and watched them care less, I shook my head taking a step back.

“I have early rounds tomorrow. Good night," I said and shut the door before he could respond.

I didn't move, but rather rested my head against the shut door.

He stood there for a long moment before his footsteps retreated down the hall.

I just needed to survive twenty-eight days.

I was headed to my bed, ready to crash, when my child's cry shattered the quiet night.

Instantly, I rushed down the hallway and threw his bedroom door open to find it empty.

Panic instantly rose in my throat.

But then, his voice came again, and I realized that the crying was coming from further down the hall, from the other guest room where Seraphina usually slept.

I found them there, Asher being cradled in the laps of Seraphina, who was sitting on her bed and gently rocking.

She looked up when I entered with a sympathetic expression on her face.

I knew instantly that it was fake.

"He had a nightmare," she explained to me in a soft voice. "Poor thing was calling for you, but I would rather not disturb you since you work so hard. So I let him tag along."

"I'll take him."

Asher's face was buried in her shoulder, and he didn't even look up at the sound of my voice.

I held out my arms.

"But he's almost asleep again,” Seraphina argued, her hold on him tightening, "Maybe it's better if I just…"

"He's my son?” I didn't raise my voice, but something in my tone made her release him.

"Thank you for comforting him."

Then, I lifted Asher, who was half asleep, into my arms, his little body warm and trusting against mine.

As I turned to leave, something on Seraphina's nightstand caught my eye.

It was a small carved wooden charm, etched with symbols I didn't recognize.

It pulsed with a faint purple energy that made my wolf stir uneasily, it looked almost like the flash I had seen in Alaric's eyes just before.

I had noticed that bottle everywhere, in my previous life but I dismissed it as a pretty trinket.

What was that?

Black magic?

As I carried Asher back to my room, a terrible thought crept into my mind.

What if running away meant abandoning Asher to whatever Seraphina was doing to him? What if my freedom cost my baby boy everything?

What if the truth I knew was an illusion?