Burgundy and Grey

CHAPTER TENThe dark was still thick outside the window when my eyes opened.I lay still for a moment, listening. The mansion breathed around me — the low settle of old walls, the distant hum of something mechanical deep in the basement, the occasional creak of a floorboard somewhere above. I reached for my glasses. Then my hearing aid. The world sharpened and filled.Four forty-three.I got up.If Sera wanted five, I would give her four fifty. I didn't know what I was trying to prove or who I was trying to prove it to. I dressed in the grey uniform, tied my hair back, and walked out into the corridor before the mansion had fully decided to wake up.The kitchen was empty when I arrived.I stood in the doorway for a moment, taking it in without the noise and bodies of yesterday crowding the space. Large. Organized in a way that made sense once you understood the logic of it. I moved to the far counter, found the cleaning cloths where they'd been yesterday, and started wiping down the

The wrong gift

The wrong gift. The ceiling had nothing new to offer.I'd been staring at it long enough to map every crack, every shadow the moonlight carved across the plaster. I turned onto my side. Then my back. Then my side again, the sheets twisting around my legs like they had a point to make.My mind wouldn't stop.It kept circling back to her. The way she moved through the kitchen that morning not asking for help and not expecting it. The way she set that bread basket down after Mandy looked through her like she was furniture. The steadiness of her hands when everything in her face said she was anything but steady.Broken.That was the word sitting in my chest like something swallowed wrong. The Moon Goddess, in all her infinite wisdom, had looked across the whole of existence and decided that this — a blind, half-deaf girl who didn't even know her own name — was what she was saving me for.My jaw clenched.Years. I had waited years. Watched Klaus find his mate, watched my Beta commanders b

Wrong morning

Diego's POVA sharp exhale forced it's way out of my lips, as I stood up from the bath, my back already aching. I didn't even sit to get my my eyes accustomed to the ray of the sun, I just dragged my feet to the bathroom. I needed to wash off the exhaustion that clung on me. The bath did nothing.I ran it cold. Stood there until my skin stopped feeling like it belonged to me, until the thing sitting behind my ribs settled into something more silent. Then I dressed, didn't look at myself too long, and went downstairs.Mandy was already at the table. She was dressed in a silk robe, her hair pinned and both hands wrapped around her tea like she'd been waiting there for hours and found it perfectly reasonable. She looked up when I walked in."Morning," she greeted warmly, like I hadn't sent her out and dismissed her intentions. Anyway, she was paid well to attend to my needs, and she knew well that whatever she felt that night was inconsequential. "Morning." I pulled out my chair and

No doll

Diego's POV "The eastern shift is the problem," Klaus said. "If Crest moves another two miles we lose the river access entirely.""Mm.""Diego.""I heard you. River access."Klaus looked at me. I wasn't looking at the report anymore.I didn't decide to stop. It just happened, the way things happen when your body stops taking instructions. My eyes had drifted across the table to where Lyra sat, her burned hand cradled in her lap, her head tipped slightly downward. The way she held herself was careful.Like someone who had learned a long time ago that taking up space came with consequences.The mark on her cheek had settled into something darker. My lips were slightly parted and I couldn't help but noticed how her lashes were low, her mouth slightly pressed together. The The morning light came through the window behind her and caught the edge of her jaw, the curve of her shoulder, the way her fingers curled gently around her own wrist like she was holding herself together from the ou

The second thought

Lyra’s POV The bandage was too tight.Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe that was just what a burn felt like when the numbing wore off and the night got quiet enough for your body to start reporting everything it had been holding. I sat on the edge of the bed and looked at my hand and tried to remember the last time something had hurt this cleanly. This without complication. Pain with a source you could point to was almost a relief.The rest of it had no source. That was the problem.I didn't know my last name.I'd been sitting with that fact for weeks now and it still didn't fit anywhere. It just floated. Unattached. Every morning I woke up and reached for something that should have been there, the way you reach for a glass of water in the dark and find only air, and every morning the reaching came back empty.My wolf stirred against my ribs. Low. Restless."I know," I said quietly.She settled, but not completely.I flexed my unbandaged hand slowly. Looked at the ceiling. The room they'd gi

The truth he chooses

Diego's POV The Truth He Chooses"Sit down."She didn't move immediately. Just stood there with her hand still flat against her thigh, her chin at that angle. Like she was deciding whether the instruction was worth following now that she'd already won the harder argument.Then she found the chair. Fingers grazing the armrest once, and she sat.I looked at her for a moment longer than I should have.The report had been sitting in the left drawer of this desk for three days. Dr. Reeves had delivered it himself, which he only did when he considered the contents too sensitive for normal channels. He'd stood exactly where Lyra was sitting now, folder in hand, clearing his throat the way men do when they're about to say something the listener won't enjoy."The amnesia," he'd said. "We can't confirm it's permanent. Trauma-induced loss of this severity. it has a pattern. The brain protects itself first. Shuts everything out. But over time, with stability, with safety, it starts to." He'd pau