Stephen's POV

The first thing I felt when consciousness returned was pain. Not the sharp, clean pain of a blade or claw, but something deeper. Something broken inside that would never heal right. My wolf whimpered in the back of my mind, weak and fragmented, like a shadow of what it used to be.

I opened my eyes to find myself in the medical wing of our family compound. White walls, sterile smell, the steady beep of machines. But what caught my attention wasn't the bandages wrapped around my ...