Lucien’s POV
Consciousness came back to me slowly, dragging me up from the darkness that felt like drowning. My entire body ached; the poison and the aggressive treatments my healers had used had left me feeling like I had been hollowed out and stuffed full of knives. But the physical pain I could handle; it was the emptiness in the mate bond where Lena should be that truly hurt.
“She’s still gone,” I croaked, my voice a mess from not being used in who knew how long. “How long?”
My Beta, Marcus, appeared at my bedside, his expression carefully neutral in the way that quietly screamed bad news. “Two days, Alpha. The antidote finally worked its way through your system, but you’ve been unconscious while your body healed.”
“Two days,” I repeated, forcing myself to sit up quietly even a
