DRAKE POV
Drake's eyes opened and the first thing he felt was peace.
That didn't make sense. Nothing made sense. His body was supposed to be in agony. The curse was supposed to be eating him alive. He was supposed to be dying.
But he wasn't.
He could feel his heartbeat under his ribs. Steady. Strong. Alive. The dark veins that had been spreading across his skin were barely visible now, just faint marks like bruises that were already healing. His strength was coming back. Not all the way. But enough that he could feel it flowing through his body again instead of draining out.
Someone had saved him.
Drake looked to his side and saw her.
Luma sat in a chair beside his healing table with her head tilted back, asleep. Her hand rested on his chest directly over his heart. Even in sleep, she was trying to heal him. Even unconscious, her magic was still connected to his body.
Drake didn't move.
He shouldn't be noticing this. He shouldn't care about her hand on his chest. He shouldn't be aware of the way her breathing matched his breathing perfectly, like their bodies had learned to synchronize while she was healing him. He shouldn't be paying attention to the way her face looked peaceful in sleep, like she was finally resting after giving everything she had.
But he was noticing all of it.
Drake had spent nine years learning not to notice people. Healers were tools. Warriors were soldiers. Pack members were resources to manage. The only thing that mattered was power and strategy and keeping control. Noticing people made you weak. Caring about them made you vulnerable.
He'd learned that lesson from his uncle before he killed him.
Yet here he was, unable to look away from this woman he'd never even spoken to before.
Her hair fell across her face. Her breathing was soft and steady. There were small scars on her hands, marks from healing work. Calluses from years of using her power to fix other people's broken bodies. The marks of someone who gave everything to help others and asked for nothing in return.
Drake had never noticed anyone like that before.
Her presence felt like breathing after drowning. Like the moment air filled lungs that had been empty for too long. Like the first time in nine years that he could actually feel alive instead of just existing as a machine designed to lead and control and survive.
That terrified him more than the curse had.
Drake tried to move his arm and managed to lift it slightly. Every muscle protested but he ignored the pain. He carefully moved her hand from his chest and set it gently on the armrest of her chair, not wanting to wake her.
Luma stirred but didn't open her eyes.
Drake watched her for another long moment. She was beautiful in a way that had nothing to do with the way warriors were beautiful. She didn't have the hard edges of someone trained to fight. She didn't have the cold calculation in her eyes that came from making life and death decisions. She was soft. Gentle. The kind of beautiful that made you want to protect her instead of use her.
Which meant she was dangerous.
Drake forced himself to look away. He tried to take inventory of his body instead. His legs worked. His arms worked. His magic was returning slowly, building back up from nothing. The curse was still there but it was weak now. Almost harmless. Almost gone.
But not quite.
Something in his body told him the curse wasn't finished yet. That it had roots deeper than his conscious mind could sense. That it was waiting for something.
Drake didn't have time to figure out what before Luma's eyes opened.
She blinked slowly like she was trying to remember where she was. Then her gaze moved to him and focused. She didn't look surprised that he was awake. She didn't look excited or hopeful. She just looked at him like she was checking for something.
"How do you feel?" she asked quietly.
Her voice was soft. Different from what he'd expected. He'd never heard her speak before. She was one of those people who existed in the background so completely that Drake had never registered her as a real person with an actual voice.
Now that voice was the most important thing he'd ever heard.
"Like I'm alive," Drake said. His own voice was rough from disuse. It felt strange in his throat. "Because of you."
Luma didn't react to that. She just nodded and moved her hand back to his chest. Her eyes closed and he felt her magic wake up inside his body. Gentle this time. Not fighting. Not struggling. Just flowing through him like water finding its way downstream.
It should have felt like an intrusion. Instead, it felt like coming home.
Drake watched her work. Her hands glowed soft golden light. She wasn't looking at him. She was completely focused on the curse inside his body, searching for something, mapping something, understanding something that Drake couldn't see.
"The curse is still there," Luma said after a long moment. She didn't open her eyes when she spoke. "It's weaker. Much weaker. But it's not gone."
"How long until it is?" Drake asked.
"I don't know," Luma said quietly. "Curses like this have roots. Deep roots. Someone put a lot of power into this. A lot of intentional dark magic. To completely remove it, I need to understand where it came from. Who made it. Why they made it."
She opened her eyes and looked at him directly.
"And I need to understand why your body is still calling to it like it's looking for something."
Drake felt ice run down his spine.
"What do you mean calling to it?"
Luma pulled her hand away from his chest slowly, like she didn't want to break the connection. "Your body isn't just cursed, Drake. You're bonded to this curse. Like someone intentionally tied it to you in a way that goes deeper than magic. This isn't just an attack. This is personal."
Drake tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. Pain shot through his entire body. Luma moved quickly and pushed him back down gently but firmly.
"Don't. You're not ready. Your body is still healing."
"Then tell me what you know," Drake said, his voice cold. The Alpha voice. The one that commanded answers. "Tell me everything."
Luma hesitated. He could see her internal war playing out on her face. Like she wanted to tell him something but was terrified of the consequences.
"I know the curse is old," she said finally. "I know it's dark magic. The kind of dark magic that requires sacrifice to cast. The kind that requires someone who understands dark magic intimately."
She stopped.
"What else?" Drake demanded.
Luma stood up and turned away from him. She walked to the other side of the healing chamber and stood with her back to him, her shoulders tense.
"I can't tell you yet," she whispered. "But I can help you figure out who cursed you. I can break the roots of this curse. But you have to trust me. And you have to understand that when we find out who did this, everything is going to get worse before it gets better."
Drake watched her standing there with her back to him. He could see her hands shaking. Could see her entire body trembling with something. Fear. Guilt. Knowledge she wasn't sharing.
And worst of all, he could feel his body responding to her fear. Could feel something inside him that was alpha and protective and wanted to promise her that nothing would hurt her as long as he lived.
That was the most dangerous thing of all.
Because Drake Ashford didn't protect people. He used them. He led them. He commanded them. But he didn't feel things for them. He didn't care about them. He didn't let them matter to him.
Until now.
"Stay with me," Drake said. It wasn't a request.
Luma turned to look at him. "What?"
"Stay here. In the healing chamber. We're not finished with the curse and you said I need to heal. I need you here to make sure I do."
Luma's hands clenched into fists. "That's not a good idea."
"It's an order," Drake said coldly. "From your Alpha."
He watched her face close off. Watched her pull whatever vulnerability she'd been showing him back inside where he couldn't see it. Watched her become invisible again.
"Yes, Alpha," she said quietly.
But as she turned to sit back down in her chair, Drake caught something in her eyes. Something that looked like hope mixed with terror.
Because they both knew the truth now.
The curse had brought them together. And the more time they spent together, the more dangerous this became. Not because of the curse. But because of what was growing between them.
And Luma knew something about the curse that she wasn't telling him. Something that connected her to whoever had created it. Something that was going to tear them apart when he eventually found out.
The question was just how much time they had before that happened.