LUMA POV
Luma couldn't stop it anymore.
Every time she put her hands on Drake, her magic pulled toward him like gravity. Like something fundamental inside her was drawn to him in ways she couldn't control. Her golden light would wrap around his body and refuse to let go. It would reach for his power and try to merge with it.
It was a bonding.
She'd learned about bondings in the stolen books she'd read. When a healer loved someone deeply enough, when the connection went beyond physical into emotional and spiritual, their magic would start bonding with the person's power. It was supposed to be rare. It was supposed to only happen between people who were meant to be together.
It was happening between her and the Alpha.
Three weeks and five days into the healing, Luma realized she was falling in love with Drake Ashford.
It terrified her.
She was the invisible healer. She wasn't supposed to be noticed. She wasn't supposed to matter. She definitely wasn't supposed to bond with the most powerful Alpha in the territory. That was how you got destroyed. That was how you became a target. That was how you lost everything.
But she couldn't stop it.
One night, Drake was strong enough to stand. He walked around the healing chamber without needing support, testing his body, making sure his strength had fully returned. The curse was almost completely gone now. Just faint marks on his skin that would disappear in another few days.
He looked at her from across the chamber.
"Come here," he said.
It wasn't a command. It was a request. Luma walked toward him and the moment she got close, he pulled her into his arms. Not to be healed. Not for any practical reason. Just to hold her.
Luma's hands pressed against his bare chest. Her magic flared instantly, bright gold light filling the space between them. She felt it trying to bond with his power. Felt it reaching for something deep inside him that wanted to reach back.
"Tell me who you are," Drake said. His voice was low and intense. Not the cold Alpha voice. The voice of a man asking a question that mattered more than anything else in the world.
Luma looked up at him and her heart broke a little.
"I'm the healer you never noticed," she whispered.
Drake's hand came up and touched her face gently. His eyes were that golden shifter color, intense and focused completely on her.
"I notice you now," he said. "I can't stop noticing you."
He kissed her.
It wasn't gentle. It wasn't careful. It was desperate and hungry and filled with need. Like he'd been waiting his whole life for this moment. Like she was the only thing that could save him from something he couldn't name.
Luma kissed him back because she couldn't help it. Because her body was already bonded to his through magic and her heart was already bonded to him through proximity and her soul was already bonded to him through the secrets she was keeping.
When they broke apart, tears were streaming down her face.
Drake pulled back and looked at her with concern.
"What's wrong?" he asked. "Did I hurt you?"
"No," Luma said, shaking her head. "Everything is about to get worse."
She couldn't keep lying to him. Not after this. Not after kissing him and letting him feel her magic bonding with his. Not after feeling his heart beating against her chest like it was beating just for her.
Drake wiped away her tears gently.
"Then we'll face it together," he said simply.
But Luma knew that was impossible.
Because when Drake found out the truth about her father, when he discovered that she was connected to dark magic in ways that went deeper than she'd ever admitted, when he realized that she'd lied to him about understanding the curse, he wouldn't want to face anything together.
He would see her as a threat.
Over the next two days, Luma prepared herself.
She gathered the research she'd been doing on the curse. She documented everything. The signature of the dark magic. The way it moved through Drake's blood. The similarities to magic she'd studied in forbidden books. The connection to someone who'd taught her things the pack would consider dangerous.
She knew what she had to do.
She had to tell Drake about her father.
Not because she wanted to. But because hiding it would destroy him far worse than the truth ever could. And because she loved him too much to let him find out from someone else. Too much to let him discover her secrets through betrayal instead of through her own voice.
On the third day, she decided to tell him everything.
Luma walked into the healing chamber that morning with her hands shaking and her heart pounding and the documents she'd prepared sitting in her bag. She was going to show him the research. She was going to explain the curse. She was going to tell him that her father had been a dark sorcerer. That she'd grown up around magic that the pack considered forbidden. That she understood the curse because it was built on principles her father had taught her.
And then she was going to watch him stop loving her.
But Drake wasn't alone in the chamber.
James Chen was standing with him, and they both looked worried. Actually, they looked like they'd been waiting for her. Like they knew something she didn't.
"Luma," James said carefully. "We need to talk about something."
Her stomach dropped.
"What happened?" she asked, even though she already knew. Someone had discovered something. Someone had found out. Her secret was about to come crashing down and she hadn't even had the chance to tell Drake herself.
"Sienna Cross came to headquarters this morning," James said quietly. "She was asking questions about you. About your family. About your mother. She said she had information that Drake needed to know."
Luma's legs stopped working properly.
No.
Sienna. The woman Drake had been with before. The woman who'd been intimate with him. The woman who would do anything to hurt them both because she was jealous of what was growing between them.
"What kind of information?" Luma asked, even though she already knew the answer.
James looked at Drake and Drake's expression was unreadable. Cold. Like the warmth that had been there moments before had frozen solid.
"About your father," Drake said quietly. "She said she had proof that he was a dark sorcerer. That you were bonded to him through blood magic. That you might have known about the curse because of your connection to dark magic."
Luma felt the world tilt.
She'd planned to tell him. She'd been about to tell him. She was going to control the narrative. She was going to explain. She was going to make him understand.
But Sienna had gotten there first.
And now Drake was looking at her with eyes that were starting to close off. Starting to see her as something other than the woman he'd kissed. Starting to see her as a possibility. A threat. A liar.
"Is it true?" Drake asked. His voice was ice again. The warmth completely gone.
Luma opened her mouth to explain but James cut her off.
"We need to go to your office, Drake. Sienna left documents. Records. We need to review them before we decide what to do about this."
Luma watched Drake stand up. Watched him prepare to leave with James. Watched the moment their connection started to shatter because she hadn't been brave enough to tell him the truth when she had the chance.
"Drake," she said desperately. "I can explain. I was going to tell you. I have research. I have proof about who really cursed you and why."
Drake looked at her one last time.
"Then you can tell us everything," he said coldly. "In my office. With James present. Because right now, I don't know who you are or what you want. And I can't afford to trust someone I don't understand."
He left.
And Luma stood alone in the healing chamber, holding her research about her father, realizing that everything she'd been terrified of was about to happen.
The only man she'd ever loved was about to discover that she'd been lying to him.
And when he did, she was going to lose him.