Lila woke to quiet.
Not the brittle, uneasy quiet she had learned to associate with danger, but a steadier kind. The kind that lived in places meant to protect rather than isolate. Soft lamplight glowed along the walls of the new Alpha-floor quarters, warming the stone to honeyed gold. The air smelled faintly of pine, fresh linen, and something else she couldn’t quite place yet.
Home, perhaps.
Or the idea of one.
Her hand drifted to her stomach before her eyes were fully open. Warmth answered. Steady. Present. She exhaled slowly, the breath catching halfway through as the memory of everything that had come before threatened to rush in.
Loss.
Silence.
Running.
She grounded herself deliberately, letting the present settle around her. The bed was wider than the one she’d known. A chai
