Mara’s POV
Pain becomes my new normal.
Not the sharp, blinding kind—this is deeper. A constant ache that settles into my bones and reminds me, with every breath, that I almost died.
I wake to the steady beep of a heart monitor and the weight of something warm wrapped around my fingers.
Declan.
His hand is still holding mine, knuckles scraped, skin bruised. He’s sitting in the chair beside my bed, head bowed, dark hair falling into his eyes. For the first time since I met him, he looks... young. Stripped bare of the Alpha, the CEO, the monster I thought he was.
Just a man who almost lost his mate.
The bond hums faintly between us—no longer frantic, no longer screaming. It’s quiet. Bruised. But alive.
I shift slightly and pain flares through my ribs. I hiss despite myself.
Declan’s
