Azura's POV
My eyes felt like they had lead weights tied to them.
I tried to blink, but the light coming through the window felt like a physical attack on my brain. Everything was a blurry mess of shapes and colors. I groaned, reaching up to rub my face, but the second my fingers brushed my skin, a sharp, white-hot pain shot through my head.
"Ow! Crap..."
I jerked my hand back, hissing through my teeth. My cheek was throbbing, and my eye felt like a giant, overripe plum.
Then, the memories hit me. The arena. The pain. Everything went black after I won.
I tried to roll over, but I stopped dead. There was something warm behind me. Very warm. And solid.
Wait. What is that?
Slowly, like I was moving through honey, I turned my head. My heart did a clumsy somersault in my chest.
A chest. A bare, tan, muscular chest was right there, inches from my nose. I watched it rise and fall with steady, calm breaths. I looked up, past the defined muscles and the strong collarbone, all the way to the jawline.
Rhydor.
The Alpha was lying in bed with me. Shirtless.
His arm was draped loosely over my side, and the heat coming off him was enough to cook a meal. I couldn't breathe. My eyes were acting like they had a mind of their own, tracing the line of his jaw and those dark, thick eyelashes resting against his skin.
I hate to admit it, especially since he's a jerk, but he was breathtakingly handsome when he wasn't trying to scare me to death.
Just then, his eyes snapped open.
Amber. They were glowing faintly in the dim room, and he was looking right at me.
I sucked in a breath and held it, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. For a long, awkward second, neither of us moved. We just stared.
Then, he moved. Fast.
He scrambled back, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He grabbed his shirt from a nearby chair, his back to me. He didn't say a word. He didn't even look back to see if I was okay. He just yanked his shirt on and walked straight out.
The door clicked shut, and I just lay there, staring at it. The warmth he left behind faded too fast, and I hated myself for noticing.
What on earth was that?
The door creaked open again a minute later. I jumped, thinking he'd come back to yell at me, but it was just Silas and Axel.
"Look who's finally joined the living," Silas said, a huge grin breaking across his face.
"Finally," Axel laughed, crossing his arms. "We thought you were trying to set a world record for sleeping."
I tried to sit up to defend myself, but a sharp pain in my ribs made me yelp and fall back onto the pillows.
"Whoa, easy there, killer," Silas said, rushing to the side of the bed. "Don't try to be a hero. You took a serious beating."
"I'm fine," I muttered, though my voice sounded like I'd been eating sand.
"You're really not," Axel said, his face turning a bit serious. "You look like a ghost."
"Do I?" I asked, feeling a bit self-conscious.
Silas nodded. "Yeah. You scared us, Azura."
I looked at them both, my mind spinning. "Why was Rhydor here? Why was he... in the bed?"
Silas raised an eyebrow, a teasing look in his eyes. "You're asking us? You're the one who woke up with him."
"I know!" I felt my face heating up until it was probably as red as a tomato. "But I don't get it."
Axel shrugged. "Neither do we. He's been acting like a total weirdo ever since the fight."
Before they could spill any more tea, a girl about my age walked in carrying a tray. She looked kind, with a soft smile.
She has long black hair, Hazel eyes and I must say she's a beauty.
"Thank the Goddess," she breathed, setting the tray down. "You're awake."
She came over and her hands started to glow as she checked my injuries. "How do you feel?"
"Like I got hit by a carriage," I admitted. "But okay, I guess."
She nodded. "That means the mate contact worked."
"The what?" I asked, my heart doing that weird skip again.
"Mate contact. Physical closeness," she explained. "It was my mom's idea. Since she's the head healer and you weren't healing on your own, she told the Alpha he had to stay with you. Skin to skin. It's the only way to jumpstart a bond-heal."
I stared at her, totally stunned. Rhydor stayed with me? For days? Doing "skin to skin" contact? I wanted to crawl under the covers and never come out.
"I'm Liona, by the way," the girl said, handing me a small bottle of gross-looking liquid. "Drink this. It'll help with the pain."
I choked down the medicine and thanked her. She gave my hand a gentle pat and left the room.
Silas looked at me. "Ready to get out of this place?"
A week. What else had happened while I was gone?
"More than anything," I said.
They helped me walk back to the pack house. My legs felt like jelly, and I had to lean on Axel for a bit, but I made it.
Genevieve met us at the door, hovering over me like a worried mother hen. She promised to bring me some soup and made me go straight to my room to rest.
****
It's been three days since I returned from the healer's ward.
The bruises on my face had turned an ugly shade of yellowish-green, but at least the swelling had gone down enough that I could see out of both eyes.
I spent most of those three days hiding in my room. I wasn't ready to face the pack, and I definitely wasn't ready to face Rhydor. Every time I closed my eyes, I felt the heat of his skin against my back. It was driving me crazy.
I sat at my small desk, staring at the two items sitting there. They felt like they were glowing, even though they were just sitting in the shadows.
The wooden box. And the journal.
I picked up the box first. My fingers traced the grain of the wood. My heart was doing a slow, heavy thud in my chest. This was it. The only thing I had left of the people who brought me into this world.
I opened the lid slowly. Inside, resting on a bed of faded velvet, was a silver pendant.
It was beautiful. The stone was a milky white, like a piece of the moon had been trapped inside a silver frame. I picked it up, and the chain felt cool and delicate as it slid through my fingers.
I didn't put it on right away. I just sat there, holding it, letting a few tears prick at my eyes. I wondered if my mother had worn this. Did my father buy it for her? Did they look at it and think of a future that included me?
I set it back in the box and closed the lid. I wasn't ready.
I stood up and paced the room for a bit, my mind racing. Then, I sat back down. I felt this pull, like the pendant was calling to me. Just wear it, Azura. It's yours now.
With shaking hands, I took it out again. I stood in front of the mirror and clipped the thin chain around my neck. The stone landed just below my collarbone, feeling surprisingly heavy for something so small. It looked... right. Like a piece of me that had been missing was finally back.
For half a second, I thought I felt a soft pulse against my skin… a single, quiet beat that wasn't my own heart. I held my breath, waiting. But it was gone, leaving only the cool weight of the stone and the ghost of a question.
Weird.
Then, I turned to the journal.
Its brown leather was soft, worn down by years of someone else's hands. I took a deep breath, expecting to find letters, drawings, maybe even a map. I gripped the cover and tried to flip it open.
It didn't move.
I blinked. I tried again, pulling a little harder. Nothing. It felt like the pages were made of solid stone instead of paper.
"What the...?" I muttered.
I checked for a lock. Nothing. I checked for a hidden button or a clasp. Nothing. I even tried to slide a butter knife from my lunch tray between the pages, but the knife wouldn't even dent the edge.
I stood up, planting my feet and pulling with every bit of strength I had left. My face turned red, and my breath hitched, but the book stayed perfectly shut. It was like it was glued together by some kind of magic.
I huffed and threw the book down on the desk. "Fine! Keep your secrets then."
I stared at it, my frustration bubbling up. Why give me a book I can't even read? It felt like a cruel joke. I reached up and touched the cool stone of the pendant around my neck.
Somewhere deep inside me, I had the awful feeling the book wasn't waiting for my hands, it was waiting for something else.