14 Awake
+25 Bonus
14 Awake
Nyra’s POV
I woke to a ceiling I didn’t recognise.
White. Clean. Too bright.
For a few seconds my mind floated in that strange space between sleep and memory, where pain hasn’t arrived yet and you almost believe you’re safe.
Then my body remembered.
A sharp sting flared in my side. My calf throbbed like a heartbeat of fire. My ribs felt bruised from the inside out, as if someone had kicked my lungs and left them sore.
I hissed and tried to move, but the movement pulled at something tight beneath my skin.
Stitches.
My breath caught.
A nurse stood beside the bed adjusting my IV, her face blank, her movements efficient. She didn’t look at
me like I was a patient. She looked at me like I was a nuisance she’d been forced to tolerate.
Her eyes flicked to mine only once.
“You’re awake,” she said flatly.
My throat was dry. “How… how long, ”
“Long enough,” she cut in, not unkind, but not gentle either. “You’re lucky.”
Lucky.
The word almost made me laugh.
I turned my head slowly. The room smelled like antiseptic and herbs, a smell I’d always associated with wolves who mattered. Wolves who were treated. Wolves who healed in warm beds with attendants and
whispered comfort.
Not girls like me.
“Lucky?” I whispered.
The nurse tightened the clamp on the IV line and finally looked at me properly, her expression hard but her eyes, just for a flicker, carried something else.
Truth.
“That stranger,” she said quietly, “was assertive enough to force the doctor to treat you. If he hadn’t… you would’ve died.”
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14 Awake
+25 Bonus
My stomach dropped.
The woods rushed back into my mind, snarls, teeth, my own blood slicking my leg, the cave swallowing me like a mouth.
And then him.
Grey eyes. Dark hair. A voice that sounded like it belonged to someone who didn’t ask permission.
“If you don’t save my mate…”
My chest tightened.
Mate.
The thought didn’t comfort me.
It frightened me.
Before I could ask anything, the door opened.
And he walked in.
The handsome stranger from the woods stepped into the room like he owned the air. He wore clothes this time, dark trousers, a fitted shirt, yet his presence still felt nakedly dangerous. His grey eyes flicked to my face and his mouth curved into a playful smile, like we’d met at a market instead of a cave soaked
in blood.
Behind him were the other two men, one with ginger hair and a face that was too kind for the brutality I’d seen in his wolf, and the third with a quieter, steadier presence, eyes watchful.
“She’s awake,” the stranger said, like it pleased him.
The nurse’s lips pressed into a line. Without another word, she walked out, shutting the door behind her a little too quickly.
I stared after her, then back at him.
Something in my chest shifted, uneasy gratitude.
Because I knew what it meant that I was still alive.
I knew my mother would have panicked if I’d stumbled home bleeding. That was if I’d made it home at all.
The way I’d been losing blood… I might not have made it out of the woods.
He held my gaze, his smile softening.
“You look less ghost-like now,” he said, tone light, like he was trying to make the room feel warmer than it
did.
I swallowed. “Thank you.”
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14 Awake
+25 Bonus
He looked almost surprised, then his eyes sharpened with something like satisfaction.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Alive,” I whispered.
He chuckled softly. “That’s a good start.”
The ginger-haired man stepped closer too, leaning in with urgency that didn’t match the calm smile his friend was wearing.
“We have to go,” he murmured to the grey-eyed man, low but sharp.
The grey-eyed man didn’t look away from me immediately, but the amusement in his face faded just slightly, as if something outside this room had suddenly snapped a leash.
He held my gaze.
I saw it then, real urgency. Not playful now. Not teasing.
A man making a decision.
“I’ll find you soon,” he said.
It wasn’t a flirtation.
It wasn’t a suggestion.
It was a promise, heavy, deliberate, like he meant it whether I wanted it or not.
Then he turned and headed out, the other two falling in step behind him.
The door closed.
And the room felt colder without them.
I exhaled slowly and stared at the ceiling again.
I didn’t know who he was.
I didn’t know why I had a mate bond with him.
And honestly… I didn’t care.
Not right now.
All I cared about was that I was alive.
That my mother wouldn’t have to bury me.
That I hadn’t died alone in the woods with my blood soaking into rogue soil.
An hour later, the door opened again.
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14 Awake
+25 Bonus
Not softly.
Not with care.
It swung wide like I was a problem that needed removing.
The doctor walked in with a clipboard tucked under his arm, his expression already set in disgust. He didn’t greet me. Didn’t ask if the pain had eased. Didn’t check my bandages.
He glanced at my chart like it offended him, then looked at me as though I’d tracked mud into a sacred place.
“You should be discharged,” he said flatly.
The nurse behind him frowned. She was younger, her mouth tight with concern, her hands clutching a tray. “Doctor, she isn’t fully healed yet. Her stitches, we need to observe her at least till evening. Her blood loss,”
“I don’t care,” he snapped, cutting her off. His eyes hardened. “I don’t want her in this hospital contaminating our things.”
The words hit me right in the throat.
Contaminating.
Like my presence could infect walls.
Like my blood was dirtier than anyone else’s.
The nurse’s eyes flicked to me. A flash of apology. Of helplessness. Then she swallowed it down because she was still part of this pack, and I wasn’t.
I could argue.
I could beg.
I could remind them I’d almost died in the woods.
But begging never made wolves kinder.
It only reminded them you were weak enough to do it.
So I nodded once, slow and small, and said, “It’s fine.”
The nurse hesitated, lips parting like she wanted to fight for me. But the doctor was already turning away.
“Get her out,” he muttered as he left, like I was a stain to be wiped clean.
The nurse helped remove my IV in silence. Her touch was careful, almost gentle, and that almost made it worse. Because kindness that couldn’t speak was still a kind of cruelty.
When she handed me my folded clothes, she didn’t meet my eyes.
4/5
14 Awake
+25 Bonus
I dressed slowly, every movement tugging at my stitches until my side burned. My calf throbbed hard enough to make my vision blur.
I told myself not to cry.
Not here.
Not in a room that had never wanted me.
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