LENA'S POV
The girl was burning up.
Lena could feel the fever radiating off her skin before she even touched her. She moved quickly, assessing, understanding in seconds what had taken hours for the official medical staff to miss. The medication was wrong. Completely wrong. It was designed to suppress wolf instincts but this girl's body was rejecting it violently. Her human and wolf sides were at war with each other and the medication was making it worse.
Not better. Worse.
Lena pushed aside everything else. No thoughts about why she'd been called here. No thoughts about the setup or the trap or the dangerous game she was playing by being in this house. She fell into the part of herself that had been born to heal.
She placed her hands on the girl's shoulders and let her gift flow.
It started as warmth. Just energy moving from Lena's palms into the girl's body. But as she concentrated, as she pushed deeper into the work, something shifted. A glow began spreading across her skin where her hands touched the girl. Soft. Golden. Unmistakable.
Her healer ability. The one she'd learned to hide because pack people didn't trust power they didn't understand. The one her mother had taught her to use in secret. The one that made her different and dangerous and useful all at once.
The girl's breathing slowed under her touch. Her body stopped shaking. Her fever began to drop. Lena could feel the girl's wolf settling, the human and animal parts of her finding balance again. It would take time for full recovery. But the crisis was passing.
She was so focused on the work that she almost didn't hear the door open.
Almost.
The air in the room changed. It became charged. Electric. Like lightning was about to strike. Lena's hands stilled but she didn't pull away from the girl. She kept working, kept the healing energy flowing, couldn't make herself turn around to see who'd entered.
She already knew.
She could feel him the way she'd felt him in that emergency room. The way her body recognized his presence before her mind could catch up. The way every cell in her was responding to his proximity.
"Leave," he commanded.
The word was absolute. Final. An Alpha in full control, giving orders that nobody questioned. Lena heard footsteps. Heard the door closing. Heard the sound of his breathing as he moved closer to where she was kneeling beside the girl's bed.
She kept her hands where they were. Kept the healing flowing. Didn't turn around.
"She'll be fine," Lena said quietly. Her voice sounded small. Scared. "The medication was the problem. She needs rest and a diet change."
Wyatt didn't respond. But she could feel him standing behind her. Could feel his presence like heat radiating across her skin. Could feel his wolf coming forward, recognizing hers, demanding something that terrified her.
The girl's breathing became steady. Her temperature normalized. Lena slowly pulled her hands away and finally allowed herself to turn around.
Wyatt was standing in the doorway like a man barely holding himself together.
His eyes were dark. Darker than they'd been that night at the lake house. His jaw was clenched so tight she thought it might break. He was wearing expensive clothes but they looked like they didn't fit him anymore. Like his body had changed since putting them on. His hands were in fists at his sides.
But his eyes. His eyes were the worst part. They looked at her with the intensity of someone searching for answers to questions he didn't even know how to ask.
"Look at me," Wyatt said.
Lena was already looking at him. But she understood what he meant. He didn't want her eyes. He wanted her to really see him. To acknowledge that this moment was real.
She stood slowly. The girl was sleeping peacefully on the bed behind her. The crisis was over. Now the real crisis was beginning.
"We met," Wyatt said. Not a question. Not confusion. Pure certainty. His voice was rough. Strained. Like the words were being torn out of him. "We met before that hospital, didn't we? I remember you."
Lena's heart stopped.
"That night at the lake house," Wyatt continued. He took a step closer. "I remember your hands. I remember your laugh. I remember the way you looked at me when the sun came up."
He stopped right in front of her. Close enough that she could smell pine trees and power. Close enough that his proximity made her whole body go still. His wolf was fully forward in his eyes now. Raw. Desperate. Dangerous in a way that made her instincts scream to run or surrender.
She did neither.
"How do you remember?" Lena whispered. "Your father called. You left. You told me you couldn't."
Wyatt's face twisted with pain. "I know what I said. I've been trying to understand why I said it. Why I left you there. Why I woke up and couldn't remember anything except fragments that didn't make sense."
He reached out slowly. His hand moved toward her face like he was asking permission with every inch of movement. When his fingers brushed her cheek, Lena felt the mate bond pulse between them. Still there. Still alive. Still demanding to be acknowledged.
"I remember everything," Wyatt said. "Not completely. But I remember enough. I remember the feeling of coming home. I remember recognizing you like I'd been searching for you my whole life. I remember my wolf knowing you before I did."
Lena pulled back before she did something she couldn't take back. Before she let herself believe that this could work. That he could choose her over his fiancée. Over his family. Over his pack.
"You don't remember," she said carefully. "You're confused. Your family told you something different happened. Your fiancée is probably—"
"I don't care about my fiancée," Wyatt said. His voice was absolute. Final. "I don't care what my family told me. I care about this. About you. About why my entire life feels like a lie when you're in the same room."
Lena felt her control starting to crack. She couldn't do this. Couldn't stand here and let him make promises he wasn't allowed to keep. Couldn't let herself believe in something that would only destroy them both.
"You have a life," she said. "You have responsibilities. You have—"
Her body lurched.
The nausea hit her suddenly and violently. She pressed her hand over her mouth but it was too late. She was already moving toward the bathroom, already desperate to get away from him, already falling apart.
She made it just in time.
When it was over, she sat on the bathroom floor trembling. Wyatt was there. She didn't know how but he was there, holding her hair back, his expression shifting from desire to horror to understanding.
"How long?" he whispered.
Lena closed her eyes. There was no hiding it now. The secret was out. The baby was real. The consequences were coming.
"Two months," she said.
The silence that followed was absolute. Complete. Like the entire world had stopped to witness this moment.
Then Wyatt said something that changed everything.
"We have a child."