I woke slowly.
Not the usual kind of waking where you stretch and blink and try to remember what day it is. This felt like surfacing from deep water after holding my breath too long. My chest felt tight. My limbs felt heavy. My eyelids fought me when I tried to open them, like they were weighted down with sand.
Light filtered into the room in soft gold bands. Warm. Gentle. Safe.
It smelled like pine and clean linen. The packhouse infirmary.
I inhaled again, slower this time, searching for danger out of instinct.
Nothing.
Just warmth. Just quiet. Just the faint scent of wolf.
Nathan.
My heart cracked at the thought before my eyes even fully opened. When they did, slowly and painfully, the first thing I saw was him.
He was asleep in a chair pulled right beside the bed. Not on the ot
