LOGINRAPHAELThe meeting hall was packed. Every alpha from the region sat around that long table again, and at the center of it all, Kael sat with Eli in his arms like the kid was some kind of trophy he had won at a fair.I walked in and didn't sit down. I just stood at the edge of the table and looked at my son. "Hand him over," I said,Kael shifted Eli slightly against his chest, "Alpha law states the child stays with the biological parent until the divorce is legally settled, you know this Raphael, even you can't override that,"Scoffed!Over ride?So he still thinks I cared about such?Guess, I've been so quiet and he got used to it."I don't care what the law states right now,"One of the older alphas leaned forward, his voice careful, "Raphael, you cannot just take the child, there are procedures, there are channels for this kind of dispute, we cannot allow—""There are no procedures that matter to me right now,"I let my voice drop into the tone that made even seasoned alphas go
NORA The files on my desk weren't going to review themselves,I knew that. But I had been staring at the same page for twenty minutes and not reading a single word on it because my mind kept going somewhere else entirely. Eli. It's always been lways Eli. I picked up my pen and put it down again and looked at the window and thought about whether he was sleeping okay, whether he was eating enough, whether Kael was even bothering to make sure someone held him the right way when he cried. The thought made my chest pull tight. I had been back on my feet for days now, back in my office, back doing Luna work, signing things, sitting in meetings, nodding at the right moments, and from the outside everything probably looked fine. But he wasn't home yet. And until he was home nothing was actually fine. I picked up the pen again and forced my eyes back to the files. --- The door opened without a knock. I didn't look up immediately, "Give me a second," "Take your time,"That
NORAI was finally out of that hospital,and I wasn't going back to my old room.I made that decision on my own and I told Raphael directly and he looked at me for a moment and then just nodded like he had already been waiting for me to say it."I'm moving into your chambers," I said,"Okay," he said,Just like that,there was no argument, no long talk about it. It's as if , he already knows. Or maybe he decided the same thing, without me knowing.Damon helped with my things, Wren was absolutely thrilled and didn't even try to hide it, and by evening I was settled into Raphael's chambers like I had always belonged there.I was more than glad to be here. I couldn't believe we actually made it official between us.What makes this more exhilarating is while I was here,he took care of everything.My medications were organized before I even asked, he checked on me more times than was probably necessary, and every time I caught him watching me from across the room he would just look away casu
RAPHAELSleep stopped making sense a long time ago. I’d lie down out of habit, stare at the ceiling, and wait for nothing to happen. Most nights, I ended up back in my study room anyway.Same chair, same silence,same thoughts I didn’t ask for.Nora.That was always where my mind went first.Her mug was still on the shelf near the cabinet. I noticed it every time I looked up. Nobody moved it. I didn’t tell anyone to. It was just there like she was still going to walk in and pick it up.The chair across my desk bothered me the most. She used to sit there like she owned the place. Sometimes arguing, sometimes quiet, sometimes just watching me like she was figuring me out piece by piece.I used to think she was too bold for her own good.Now the room just felt wrong without it.I pushed a file forward, tried to focus. My eyes moved over the same line again and again without taking anything in. After a while I stopped pretending.No point.My attention kept slipping anyway. Back to the ho
NORAMy eyes opened slowly and the first thing I saw was a white ceiling, bright lights, and a hospital smell that I already knew way too well at this point. I blinked once, twice, and my brain was still trying to catch up with where I was and what was happening around me."She's awake,"That was Wren and she was already grabbing my arm before I could even process anything. Her eyes were red and swollen like she had been crying for a really long time, and suddenly there were people everywhere, voices coming from every direction, movement all around the bed. "Nora hey, can you hear me, are you okay,""Don't sit up yet,""Give her space please, give her space,""Nora look at me,""I'm okay," I said, and my voice came out rough and strange, like something that hadn't been used in a long time, "I'm okay, just give me a second,"Daniel pressed my shoulder back down gently when I tried to sit up, "Easy, your body needs time, don't rush it,"I let him push me back and I looked around the
NORAI could hear everything.That was the worst part honestly, I could hear every single thing happening around me but I couldn't do anything about it, I couldn't move, I couldn't open my eyes, I couldn't even make a sound no matter how hard I tried and I tried so many times.It was like being trapped inside my own body with no way out.I heard Celeste crying at some point, that soft broken kind of crying that she was clearly trying to hold back but couldn't, and I heard Marcus's voice too, low and tight, talking to someone I couldn't identify properly.I heard Wren.I heard Daniel giving instructions to someone.I heard all of it and I was right there, I was present, but my body just refused to respond to anything I was trying to tell it to do and that was the most frustrating and terrifying thing I had ever experienced in my entire life.But more than any of that, more than the frustration of being trapped and more than the fear of not knowing what was happening to my body, all I k
NORAI woke up to the sound of machines beeping softly somewhere close to me and a stillness in the room that felt wrong before I could even fully open my eyes. My head was heavy and my body ached in ways I did not have words for yet and for just a few seconds between sleeping and waking I did not
NORAThe pack ceremony had been going on for hours and I had been standing at the far edge of it the whole time, invisible the way I always was at these things, holding my heavily pregnant stomach and wishing with everything in me that I could just disappear back to my room and lie down and pretend
RAPHAELMe and Marcus and Celeste were all sitting together at the hospital and honestly the whole atmosphere felt really heavy, like nobody even knew what to say anymore after everything that happened with Nora.Celeste looked completely broken, her eyes were red already from crying too much and e
NORAI can't sleep, not when I have been thinking about everything that happened during the day and everything that is currently going on between me.With Marcus, the possibility of me being, what I don't wanna think about.I've been staring at the ceiling for what feels like forever now and honest







