Hybrid Lena

Chapter 2

-Lilian-

The next morning, I stood in the queue at my local corner café, staring at the price board without really seeing it.

I desperately needed caffeine if I was going to survive another shift. My reflection stared back at me from the mirrored fridge, dark circles beneath my eyes, skin drawn tight with fatigue. I hadn’t slept much. Every time I closed my eyes, the resus room replayed itself in brutal clarity.

Which made no sense. I’d dealt with cardiac arrests before. I’d only been working at the hospital a week, but even in that short time, bad emergencies become familiar.

So why this one?

Of course, I knew the answer.

The man had been a wolf, like me, and he’d ended up in a human hospital. I read in books that had our own facilities, discreet and well-hidden, but they were miles away and accessed through a different emergency system entirely. That was what it said in the books I read anyways.

Which meant a human had found him.

I wondered who. What state he’d been in. What they’d seen before they’d made the call that brought him to us.

“Good morning, love. What can I get you?” The woman behind the counter pulled me out of my thoughts.

“Sorry erm, A large mocha, please. With an extra shot,” I said, managing a tired smile. “I really need it today.” She smiled back and got to work. As I waited, my eyes drifted again to the mirrored surface and froze.

A large, dark silhouette stood outside the café, framed in the reflection. It wasn’t moving. It was facing me. What struck me the most was the piercing bright blue glow of it eyes.

My breath caught.

I snapped my head around, scanning the pavement beyond the window.

Nothing.

People passed by in both directions, laughing, talking, completely unaware. My heart pounded as my gaze swept the street, searching for something anything that matched what I’d seen.

“Here you go, ma’am.”

I turned back too quickly, fingers closing around the warm cup. “Thank you.”

I didn’t linger. I pushed through the door and stepped into the morning crowd, eyes darting left, then right.

Nothing.

Traffic hummed as the city moved on. My eyes focusing around as the noise became a background blur. Then, my phone vibrated in my jacket pocket, making my focus disappear and my body slightly jump. I answered without checking the screen.

“Yes, Noah, I’m on my way,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I just grabbed a coffee as I didn’t sleep much. I’ll see you in ten minutes.”

I hung up before he could argue and slipped the phone away. I drew in a slow breath as I started walking, letting the morning sun warm my skin. The air was crisp, clean refreshing. I needed this walk. Needed the space.

Noah offered me a lift again this morning. He’d offered every day since I started, normally I didn’t mind but lately, It felt like too much./

He meant well. He always had. He’d tried to guilt me into changing my mind last night, half joking, half serious. In the end, we’d compromised, I’d walk in, but he’d drive me home after my shift.

Typical Noah.

He’d been like a big brother to me for as long as I could remember. Fifteen years of watching out for me, stepping in before I even knew I needed it. Growing up an only child, he’d been the closest thing I had to family. Alongside Uncle Graham.

Five years older. Five years wiser at least, he liked to think so. I’d never imagined I’d be here at nineteen, newly qualified. Working my dream job. Already facing things most people never would.

My first week had been relentless. And then there had been him, the first other wolf I’d encountered in the hospital. The rarity of it should have felt like a miracle.

Instead, it felt like a threat.

Lena stirred quietly inside me, alert but calm, She’d been ready if things had gone wrong. Ready to protect us, Ready to fight anything that would cause us harm.

If he’d woken and lost control, everything would have unravelled. Our secret. My life. Noah’s understanding of who and what I really was. I shook my head as the hospital entrance came into view, forcing the images away.

Later, dressed in my uniform dark blue trousers, grey tunic, hair twisted into a neat bun, I stepped out of the ladies’ changing room and promptly collided with a solid chest.

I looked up. Of course it was Noah.

“You’ve got to stop doing that,” I said, irritation slipping through. He only smirked and fell into step beside me as we headed down the corridor toward the nurses’ station.

“Did you enjoy your walk?” he asked, his tone just a little too stern.

“Yes actually,” I replied lightly. “it was nice. I even managed to get a coffee.” I glanced up at him, smirking deliberately. He shrugged like he didn’t care but I knew him too well to miss the tension beneath it.

At handover, everything processed as normal. Patient updates. Notes passed on. Routine information flowing from one shift to the next, and then they finished.

I raised my hand slowly. “Sorry to interrupt.” All eyes turned to me

“Do we have an update on the patient who went missing yesterday?” I asked. “The one who came in with cardiac arrest?”

Blank stares.

Silence stretched, uncomfortable and heavy. I glanced at Noah. He looked just as confused.

“He was in bed thirty-two,” I continued carefully. “He went missing around eight last night. You even asked Noah and me if we’d seen him.” The senior night nurse frowned.

“We haven’t had any patients go missing. And there’s been no one I’m bed thirty-two for the last three days.”

My stomach dropped.

What the hell?

Their expressions held no recognition. No doubt, just certainty. I stood there, pulse pounding, as the impossible settled in.

He hadn’t just escaped.

He had been erased.