|Serena's POV|
I wake to warmth—unfamiliar and unbearable—the kind that presses in from all sides and wraps around me like I asked for it, like I deserve it, and for a moment, I forget where I am, forget what happened, forget who I am, until the sharp ache in my wrist hums against the quiet and drags me back like a hook behind my ribs.
My eyes blink open slowly, the light around me too soft to be cruel but still unwelcome, and it takes me a moment to realize I'm not alone—not in my bed, not in my skin, not in this moment—and then I feel it: the steady, deliberate rise and fall of a chest beneath my cheek, the slow pull of breath against my temple, and the heavy weight of an arm slung around my waist like a vow I never asked for.
And I know.
I don't need to look. I know it's him.
Gryph
