Alpha Bladen POV
I wake up already knowing something is wrong.
It isn’t the pain.
The pai. Has always been there—constant, dull, buried beneath everything else like something waiting its turn. I’ve learned to exist around it. To ignore it when I need to.
This is different.
This feels like…. absence.
My chest rises too slowly. The air doesn’t fill the way it should. For a moment, I stay still, staring at nothing, trying to understand what my body is doing.
Then it hits.
Sharp. Sudden.
I inhale too quickly, and it burns.
A tightness locks across my ribs, pulling inward like something is wrapping around them and squeezing. My hand presses instinctively against my chest, fingers curling into the fabric as long as I could hold it in place.
I force myself to sit up.
The room tilts
