Lila's POV

The first thing I felt was his warmth.

Not just the heat of his body beside me, it was something else. Something I couldn't explain. Like being wrapped in the remnants of a storm that had finally settled.

His breathing slow and steady, and if I closed my eyes, I could almost pretend he wasn't the same man who had howled like a wounded god hours ago.

I didn't sleep. I couldn't. Definitely not after seeing what I just saw.

His wolf, the pain, the boy my mother had locked away like some cursed creature. The Alpha who had become something else entirely.

But in that moment, when...