The wolf I Loved Twice

The Shower Incident

Violet's POV

Okay, so maybe letting RayRay do the laundry wasn’t my best idea.

Sure, he’d been enthusiastic about folding towels, learning how to mop without turning the living room into a slip n slide, and even watching an entire series of cleaning tutorials online. But trusting him with delicates? Rookie mistake.

I stood in front of the laundry basket, holding up what used to be my favorite red bra.

Now it looked like it belonged to a very confused Barbie.

"RayRay!"

There was a clatter from the bathroom and the door creaked open, steam spilling out. A very wet, very shirtless, very confused Ryan blinked at me with his towel dangerously low.

"Did I break something again?"

I threw the shrunken bra at his chest. He caught it with one hand, raised an eyebrow, then had the nerve to grin.

"I didn’t know that was a weapon. Are you planning war?"

"You put it in with the hot towels, didn’t you?"

"The red one? I thought it was a sock."

He looked so proud of himself I didn’t know whether to cry or laugh.

"You owe me new underwear."

"I’ll buy you a whole drawer full," he said with a wink. "Lacy. Black. Maybe red."

"You’re incorrigible."

"I don’t know what that means, but if it means charming, then yes."

I slammed the door in his face before he could see the smile that broke out.

Ryan's POV

Living with Violet was like being caught in a permanent state of electricity. I never knew what would happen next, but I always wanted to be in the room when it did.

And the way she blushed whenever I teased her? Addictive.

The truth was, I knew what a bra was. I’m not completely clueless. But I also liked seeing her flustered, cheeks glowing pink like fresh roses.

I didn’t remember anything from before waking up on that mountain, but these little moments made life feel real. Tangible. Worth waking up for.

And her? She made me feel human.

Violet's POV

The next day, he made breakfast.

Again.

"Surprise!" he said proudly, setting a plate of what looked like burnt omelets, two croissants from the gas station, and... was that pickles?

"Is that a theme?"

"It’s called 'confused European.'"

I laughed so hard I nearly choked on a croissant. He beamed like he’d won a Michelin star.

After breakfast, he cleaned up (with supervision this time), then dragged me outside to help him paint the fence.

"We should paint it violet," he said with a wink.

"Because of my name? That’s the worst pun."

"It’s our fence. We need a name. Fencey McFencerson?"

"You’re impossible."

"And yet here you are, laughing."

And I was.

Every day with him brought something new. More layers. More smiles. More moments I never wanted to end.

Ryan's POV

That night, she fell asleep on the couch again.

I sat beside her for a while, just listening to her breathe. Her hair was a mess, and her shirt had paint smudges. But she looked like the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

I wanted to kiss her.

I didn’t.

Not yet.

Because something inside me told me that when it happened when we finally crossed that line everything would change.

And I wasn’t ready to forget what we had now.

Even if I was already falling for her.

Violet's POV

He didn’t know this, but I was already dreaming about him.

About what it would be like to wake up next to him every day, to hear his sleepy voice in the morning, to see him grow into the world he was slowly remembering.

We weren’t there yet.

But we were getting closer.

And maybe... just maybe...

I didn’t want to be just Violet anymore.

Maybe I wanted to be RayRay’s Violet.

Violet's POV

Four weeks. That was how long RayRay had lived in my house. Four weeks of disaster meals, uneven laundry piles, emotional whiplash, and the slow, dangerous realization that I liked having him around. A little too much.

It was almost midnight when I walked into the kitchen and found him sitting at the table, shirtless, sipping a cup of steaming chamomile tea with the grace of a prince and the eyes of a lost wolf.

"Couldn’t sleep again?" I asked, grabbing a mug for myself.

He shrugged, the muscles in his shoulders flexing like he was aware of the effect they had. "Storm dreams."

That was what he called them. Not nightmares. Storm dreams. Flashes of memory that jolted him awake, sweating and confused. Sometimes he remembered a voice calling his name. Sometimes a fight. Once, he claimed he saw a woman with violet eyes. (I tried not to think too hard about that.)

"Want to talk about it?"

"Not really. But sitting here with you helps."

I smiled, even though my chest ached. The way he looked at me like I was his anchor. Like I was the only thing keeping him from being swept away.

Ryan's POV

She wore fuzzy socks and an oversized hoodie with a cartoon dragon on it. Her hair was messy from sleep, and she smelled like cocoa butter and sleep. No royal banquet or fancy castle in my shattered memories could compare to this.

"You always make tea when you can't sleep?" I asked.

"Only on the nights when I’m pretending not to be lonely."

That hit deeper than expected.

I reached out without thinking and brushed a strand of hair from her face. She froze. I froze. For a second, the world did too.

And then she pulled back, cheeks pink, eyes darting away.

"You, uh... you should get some sleep. We both should."

"Right. Sleep. Great idea."

But neither of us moved.

Violet's POV

The tension had been there for weeks. The lingering glances. The accidental brushes. The heat whenever we stood too close. And now, with only a table between us, steam rising from our cups like we were the stars of some indie romance movie, I almost leaned in.

Almost.

Instead, I stood, awkwardly bumping the table and spilling tea on my hoodie. Classic.

"Crap!"

RayRay jumped up instantly, grabbing a dish towel, dabbing at me like I was a spilled drink instead of a person.

"Sorry! Did I do that?"

"No, I did. Because I’m graceful like a newborn deer on roller skates."

His lips twitched. "You’re adorable."

My brain short circuited. Adorable? Did he just say adorable?

Ryan's POV

I wanted to kiss her.

I wanted to lean in, cup her face, and kiss the doubt out of her eyes. But something held me back. A whisper in my bones. A memory still out of reach.

Instead, I brushed a kiss to her forehead. Just a light one. Barely there. But it felt like fire.

"Goodnight, Violet."

She blinked up at me, dazed. "Goodnight, RayRay."

I turned and walked to the couch. If I didn’t, I’d do something we weren’t ready for yet. And I wanted our first kiss to be unforgettable. Not stolen in a sleepy kitchen at midnight.

Violet's POV

He kissed my forehead. My actual forehead.

And somehow, it was the most intimate thing anyone had ever done.

I stood there for ten whole minutes, holding an empty mug and wondering how I had gone from lonely to dangerously close to falling for my housemate with memory loss and a body carved by the gods.

The worst part?

I didn’t want it to stop.