Saige’s POV

The Alpha’s den is nothing like I expect.

I follow Eike through the towering stone archway, my steps echoing in the dim corridor as torches cast restless shadows along the walls. Everything smells like cedar, cold iron, and him — that same dark, grounding scent that clings to my memories like smoke. It unsettles me, but I refuse to let him see that.

He walks ahead with his back straight, shoulders rigid, jaw set in that controlling, unreadable way of his. He hasn’t looked at me once since we left the infirmary. I don’t know if that’s restraint… or fear.

I tighten my grip on the thin pack they gave me — spare clothes, a blanket, nothing else. I don’t need their charity. I don’t need him. I only need space to breathe, to remember, to figure out why my wolf reacts to him with equal parts longing and fury.

Eike stops in front of a heavy wooden door and finally turns to face me.

“Until we know who you are and why rogues were targeting you,” he says, voice even but firm, “you’ll stay here. Under supervision.”

Supervision. Not protection, not hospitality but a cage with better lighting.

I lift my chin. “I already told you — I’m not staying in your pack.”

“And I already told you,” he replies, the faintest growl behind his words, “that leaving isn’t an option right now.”

My wolf stirs at the sound, pushing against my ribs with hot defiance. She’s restless around him — too aware, too awake. Whatever bond tries to knit itself between us tightens again, a thread pulling hard enough to sting. He feels it too. I see the flicker in his eyes, the flash of something raw he tries to bury.

He steps closer. “Saige… your injuries healed too fast. Your aura is—”

He stops, as if the rest is dangerous to say.

“Unusual.”

Unusual. Divine. Impossible. I’ve heard all of it in hushed whispers behind my back. But hearing it from him hits differently.

I force a breath. “I’ll keep my distance, stay out of trouble and stay out of sight. Just don’t trap me here.”

“You’re not trapped.”

I laugh once — bitter. “Then give me the option to leave.”

He says nothing.

His silence is my answer.

He pulls the door open. Inside is a small room — simple, clean, sunlit through a narrow window. A bed, a table, a soft rug. It’s better than the forest, better than bleeding out on the cold ground… but it doesn’t feel safe. Not when the man who unknowingly killed me stands at the threshold.

Eike glances at the room, then at me. Something unspoken ripples between us.

“This is temporary,” he says quietly. “When we know more, we’ll decide what comes next.”

We.

The word twists inside me.

I nod once and step into the room. His aura brushes mine — a warm, electric sweep that makes my breath catch. I hate that my wolf reacts, that she leans toward him like she remembers something I can’t.

He stops in the doorway, gripping the frame like he needs to hold himself back.

“If you need anything,” he murmurs, “ask me directly. Not the others.”

Why?

Because he doesn’t trust them?

Or because he doesn’t trust himself?

Before I can ask, he turns and walks away — fast, like he’s escaping his own den.

I close the door behind me, chest tight, pulse loud in my ears.

The Alpha wants me close.

My wolf wants him closer.

I just want the truth.

And something tells me neither of us is ready for what happens when we finally uncover it.

I spend the next hour pacing the small room like a restless animal.

The bed is too soft.

The air is too quiet.

The walls feel too close.

Everything inside me screams that staying in Eike’s pack is a mistake. I can’t decide if the danger is from the wolves outside these walls… or the one whose scent lingers in every corner of this den.

When my chest gets too tight, I crack open the window. A breeze slips in, carrying faint sounds of the pack — training shouts, laughter, the thud of fists against practice dummies. A normal world. A world I’m not part of.

Not anymore.

I sit on the bed and press my fingertips to my temples. Memories flicker like dying embers — fire, claws, betrayal. A man’s silhouette framed by smoke. A voice whispering “forgive me”.

Every time I chase the image, it slips through my fingers like mist.

A knock on the door startles me. Before I can answer, it pushes open and a woman steps inside wearing healer robes. She’s around my age, maybe younger, with warm brown skin and a sharp, precise gaze that misses nothing.

“Hello,” she says gently. “I’m Dr. Lina. Just checking on your condition.”

I nod. “I’m fine.”

“You collapsed yesterday.”

Her brows knit. “That is… not fine.”

I don’t respond. If I lie, she’ll sense it. If I tell the truth — that my wolf feels like she’s waking from a century-long sleep — she’ll think I’m unstable.

She moves closer, scanning my face as if reading secrets beneath my skin.

“Your healing is accelerating,” she murmurs. “Even for a wolf.”

I swallow. “Is that bad?”

“It’s unheard of.”

Her tone is soft, but her words hit hard. I wrap my arms around myself, trying not to look as uneasy as I feel.

“I just need rest,” I say.

Dr. Lina studies me for another beat, then nods slowly. “I’ll inform the Alpha you’re recovering well.”

The mention of Eike makes my wolf lift her head, and I curse silently at the reaction.

Lina notices. Her lips twitch — not a smile, but something close.

“You don’t have to be afraid of him,” she says.

“I’m not afraid.”

She gives me a look that says she knows exactly how much of a lie that is.

Before she leaves, she pauses in the doorway.

“If you ever feel overwhelmed…” Her eyes soften. “You can talk to me.”

I nod, though I know talking won’t solve anything. It won’t bring back the memories. It won’t erase the truth that coils beneath my ribs like a living thing:

Eike is tied to my past.

To my death.

To the reason I’m alive again.

When the door closes behind her, I let out a shaky breath.

Hours pass. The sun moves and shadows stretch across the floor. By evening, my wolf is pacing inside me, agitated for reasons I can’t name.

Then...

Footsteps stop outside my door.

Quiet, controlled and heavy enough to make the wood tremble.

Eike.

Even without seeing him, I feel the shift in the air — like a storm gathering right outside my room. His aura brushes against mine, uninvited and impossible to ignore.

My breath catches.

Why is he standing there?

Why isn’t he knocking?

Why do I feel like the floor itself is listening?

I ease closer to the door. My fingers hover over the handle.

But before I can touch it, a faint whisper drifts through the crack beneath the door.

A woman’s voice.

Not Eike’s.

Cold, sharp, poisoned.

“She needs to go,” the woman hisses. “Tonight, before he gets attached.”

My pulse stops.

Attached to who?

To me?

Another voice — the same woman, but lower, darker:

“If she stays, everything we’ve worked for will crumble.”

My wolf growls softly inside me.

Someone is plotting.

Someone wants me gone.

And I don’t even know who the hell they are.

The hallway falls silent.

For a moment, I think the whispering woman has left — but then fabric rustles, and footsteps shift like someone adjusting their stance. They’re still there. Right outside my door. Planning whatever “removal” means for me.

I press my palm against my chest, forcing my heartbeat to steady. My wolf is alert now, ears perked, claws scraping the inside of my ribs.

Avice, I realize.

The same woman whose eyes followed me earlier like I was something dirty dragged into her perfect world. The same woman who stood too close to Eike, her hand on his arm as if she had every right to be there.

My breathing grows slowly, controlled.

I need to hear more.

I lower myself until my ear is almost against the door — and the next words pour through the crack like ice water down my spine.

“She’s dangerous, Avice,” a second female voice murmurs. “The Alpha shouldn’t be near her.”

Avice scoffs under her breath. “Exactly why she needs to disappear. Eike is too clouded to see what she is.”

Clouded.

Because of me?

Something inside me twists sharply.

“What if he already suspects something?” the second woman asks, nervous.

Avice’s answer is a soft, deadly whisper:

“He suspects nothing. He’s too busy mourning his Luna to notice an imposter slipping into her shadow.”

Imposter.

The word hits me like a blade.

My fingers curl into fists. My wolf snarls, offended, restless, but I force her back down. Now is not the time to burst through the door and confront anyone. I don’t know enough yet — and I don’t know who I can trust in this place besides myself.

Avice continues, voice dripping venom:

“Eike will see her true nature soon enough. But until then, we handle it our way.”

There’s a pause. Then the faint scrape of something metallic.

A knife?

A key?

My throat tightens.

“We do it tonight,” Avice adds. “Before the moon rises.”

My wolf surges forward, feral and territorial, ready to tear through the wood separating us. I clamp a hand over my mouth to keep from growling aloud.

I’m being hunted again.

Just like before.

Just like the night I died.

Footsteps shift, then begin moving down the hall.

I step back, heartbeat hammering. My legs feel shaky, but my instincts are razor-sharp now. I move to the window, push it open, letting the night air wash over me.

I need a plan. I can’t run — not yet. Not without answers. And I can’t fight the entire pack in my state. I have to think smart.

I pace once, twice, breathing deeply, grounding myself.

Avice wants me gone.

Someone else is helping her.

And Eike… doesn’t know?

Or worse — he knows something is wrong with me, but not why.

The bond pulses suddenly, sharp and unexpected — a magnetic tug pulling beneath my ribs, dragging my awareness toward him like gravity.

Eike feels something.

Maybe danger.

Maybe me.

The connection burns, and I wince, gripping the edge of the window as pain thrums through my chest.

Why does being near him hurt and soothe me at the same time?

Why does he feel familiar and terrifying all at once?

And why did Avice sound threatened by that?

I press my forehead to the cool glass.

I don’t want to die again.

I refuse to die again.

Not when I’ve just begun to understand that my return wasn’t an accident — it was fate dragging me back into the orbit of a man who may have destroyed me once already.

A sharp knock jolts me upright.

Saige.

Saige, open the door.

Eike’s voice.

My wolf leaps.

My pulse spikes.

I turn toward the door — torn between opening it… and running far, far away.

Before I can move, the doorknob turns slowly on its own — and Eike steps inside with a storm in his eyes.