Lila's POV
The first thing I felt was his warmth.
Not just the heat of his body beside me, it was something else. Something I couldn't explain. Like being wrapped in the remnants of a storm that had finally settled.
His breathing slow and steady, and if I closed my eyes, I could almost pretend he wasn't the same man who had howled like a wounded god hours ago.
I didn't sleep. I couldn't. Definitely not after seeing what I just saw.
His wolf, the pain, the boy my mother had locked away like some cursed creature. The Alpha who had become something else entirely.
But in that moment, when he shifted... when his body trembled in my arms... I didn't see a monster.
I saw a broken man trying to survive inside the shell of one.
And by the moon goddess, it hurt.
A quiet rustle beside me p
