All Chapters of Once Lost, Twice Found: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Ann’s POVI spent most of the next day avoiding Jack, though I kept insisting that was not what I was doing. I ate breakfast before he came downstairs, declined his invitation to walk in the gardens, and stayed in my room with a book I could not follow. By evening, I had read the same page so many times I nearly knew it by heart.The truth was simple: Jack had been angry yesterday. He had said the anger was not directed at me, and I believed him, but when I touched his arm, he stepped away. To anyone else, it might have meant nothing. To me, it was a warning. Years of watching for small changes, such as a hand withdrawn, a shoulder turned, or a voice going cold, had trained my body to react before reason could intervene.Jack had never made his anger my problem. Still, my mind supplied every possible explanation. He did not want me touching him. He regretted kissing me. Learning about Reginald had changed the way he saw me. None of it made sense, but staying away felt safer than reach

Logan’s POVMara Hale was becoming a problem.She stood a few feet away in the forest, wearing the smug look of someone who mistook silence for confession. I had already told her to return to Blackwood, but she had followed me instead.“You didn’t deny it,” she said. “Ann is the woman you’re looking for. You reacted when I said her name.”I stared at her. “You abandoned your pack in the middle of the night to follow a stranger through neutral territory. You’re the last person who should be analyzing anyone’s behavior.”Her smile disappeared. I turned and walked away, but she stayed close behind me.“Why is Reginald looking for her?” she asked. When I ignored her, she raised her voice. “Why did Ann run?”I stopped. The birds had gone quiet, the wind had faded, and only Mara’s footsteps disturbed the silence.“Go back to Blackwood,” I said.She lifted her chin. “And if I don’t?”For the first time, I looked at her as more than an annoyance.She was alone, no one knew her exact location,

Ann’s POVJack ended up staying longer than either of us had expected.The room gradually darkened as the last of the evening light faded from the windows, leaving only the lamps beside the sofa glowing. Neither of us made a move to turn on anything brighter because, somehow, the quiet shadows suited us.His hand stayed wrapped around mine, his thumb brushing my knuckles now and then. A few weeks ago, that small touch would have made me nervous. Now I barely noticed it unless he stopped, and then I noticed immediately. I probably should have found that more frightening than I did.When I shifted to ease the ache in my back, Jack immediately looked down at me.“Uncomfortable?” he asked.“A little,” I said.His attention sharpened at once. “Is it your back, or are you in pain?”“No.” I gave him a look before he could launch into his usual questions. “There’s no cramping, bleeding, or dizziness.”His mouth twitched. “You already have the questions memorized.”“You ask them often enough.”

Ann’s POVI could not stop looking at the pictures. Even after we left the clinic and crossed the garden path, I kept staring at the three tiny shapes printed there. Jack teased me for nearly walking into him, but I barely heard him. For the first time, I had proof I could hold that they were there and safe.Healthy. The word had circled in my head since Doctor Anderson said it. The boys were developing well. The little girl was smaller, but she was growing, and her heartbeat was strong. All three were alive. Moving. Mine.Something caught in my throat. “You are crying again,” Jack said.“I am not.” I touched beneath one eye and found moisture. “Fine. I am happy.”“I gathered that. It is becoming difficult to tell which kind of crying I should worry about.”I laughed, which only made more tears gather. Jack smiled. It was not constant — he was not that kind of man — but he still did. And now whenever he looked at the ultrasound pictures, warmth softened his whole face.Maybe I should

Tristan’s POVI had pictured finding Mara a hundred different ways.Angry. Defiant. Standing in some neutral town and telling me she had every right to disappear because no one understood what she was trying to do. I imagined dragging her back to Blackwood while she cursed me the whole way. I pictured the argument when she finally admitted she had waited until I fell asleep before slipping out. I even imagined kissing her again just to shut her up when she tried to convince me that leaving without a word had been reasonable.I had never imagined finding her unconscious in the dirt.That image burned into me from the moment a scout called me to the western road. Mara was on her side near the boundary, hair tangled, clothes streaked with mud, one wrist bruised so badly I could see the shape of fingers. She lay completely still. For a second I thought she was dead. Fear turned to rage so fast it felt like a physical thing.Now I stood outside a private treatment room while Anderson worke