Mai’s P.O.V.
The first thing I noticed was warmth.
Not the kind that ca from the sun or a fire, but sothing deeper. A warmth that engulfed like invisible arms, seeping into my bones, filling the empty spaces inside that I never knew existed.
The second thing I noticed was the scent. Fresh rain, wild berries and the lingering scent of sothing undeniably familiar.
The third thing?
I was being watched.
My eyes remained closed, my body still sluggish as if I were waking from a deep, dreamless sleep, but I felt them—dozens of eyes pressing in on .
It wasn’t the stares that unsettled , though.
No.
It was the voice.
Not the whispers that had haunted since childhood, the wicked things that slithered into my mind when I was alone. Not them.
This voice was different.
It was clear. Strong. And it felt like it was ant to be there.
"I can’t believe it," the voice huffed indignantly. "She doesn’t even know! I swear, if I wasn’t locked up, I would be tearing through this room right now!"
I jolted.
My body tensed, my heart thudding in my chest.
"Who...?"
"Oh! OH! She can hear ! SHE CAN HEAR !" The voice squealed—yes, squealed—in joy.
I flinched. "Who are you?" I asked cautiously, my words uncertain, hesitant.
The voice sucked in a dramatic gasp.
"You... you’re talking to ? YOU CAN HEAR ?!"
My breathing hitched. I could feel my fingers twitching, the sleep clearing from my body rapidly as my mind worked to make sense of what was happening.
"Of course, I can hear you!" I shot back. "Who are you? Why are you in my head?"
The voice paused for a bit.
And then, the voice whispered, full of sothing raw and fragile.
"My na is Frost. I’m... your wolf."
I felt my entire body turn to ice.
No.
No, that was impossible.
My wolf was locked away. My parents had sealed her when I was just a baby. Elizabeth had done it herself. I had never heard a voice in my head that belonged to anyone but my own or Laevira.
"Please tell this isn’t a joke," I whispered, though my voice wavered.
Frost made a small noise, sothing sad and broken. "No, Mai. It isn’t. I’ve been locked away... for so long. Because of that witch. Laevira."
I hated that na.
But the na didn’t matter. None of it.
Because Frost was here.
Oh my goddess! I had a wolf! And she was talking to !
Was this a dream? Did that an—
"Frost," I cried. "How...? How are you here?"
My wolf hesitated. "I don’t know," she admitted. "But now that you ntion it... sothing is wrong. Or... right? Laevira... I can’t feel her... she’s... gone."
My eyes flew open.
I let out a sharp inhale. A rush of awareness.
I shot up so fast I nearly collided with soone’s face, my pulse hamring in my ears. The weight of exhaustion, the fog of sleep—gone. In its place, a thrumming, electric energy coursed through my veins, setting every nerve alight.
Laevira.
She was gone.
How? When?
A tidal wave of emotions crashed over —joy, relief, freedom—so overwhelming, so consuming, that I couldn’t contain it. It burst from my chest in an unstoppable surge, shattering the silence.
I scread.
Not a cry of pain, not a sound of fear, but sothing raw and unfiltered. Sothing untad. It tore from my throat, vibrating through my very bones, a sound of pure, unchained release.
The weight—the constant, suffocating weight I had carried for years—was suddenly gone.
Laevira was gone.
And Frost was here.
My wolf. My true self.
But just as that realization hit , sothing else did too.
That sa scent.
It wasn’t just any scent. It was sothing undeniable. Sothing that curled around my senses, wrapped around like a whisper of warmth against a cold night.
Fresh rain and wild berries. Laced with sothing deeper. Sothing sharp yet soft, like the first breath of air after a storm. Like silk sliding across bare skin.
It was fire and safety. It was everything.
I gasped, my gaze snapping toward the source.
Liam.
He was holding my hand.
His fingers, warm and slightly calloused, were wrapped around mine, grounding in a way nothing else ever had. His wavy blond hair had fallen over his forehead, partially covering the burn scars that stretched along the left side of his face. Those scars—scars I had given him—had never taken away his beauty. If anything, they made him even more breathtaking.
But it wasn’t just his face, his hand, or even his scent that made my heart pound in my chest.
It was the mont I heard it.
"Mate!"
Frost’s voice rang through my head, raw and fierce, filled with a yearning so powerful it made my entire body tremble.
My breath hitched.
Liam.
The boy I had always been drawn to. The boy I had never been able to leave alone, no matter how much he tried to push away. The boy whose re presence made the wicked whispers in my head disappear.
He wasn’t just soone I loved.
He was my mate.
There were voices around but they all suddenly blurred, as if the world had been swallowed by a rushing tide. My mother. My father. Ollie. Papa. Rylan. Juliette. They were all speaking, their words frantic, filled with worry.
"Mai!"
"Are you alright?"
"You scared the hell out of us!"
"What happened?"
I barely heard them.
All I could hear was the deafening beat of my heart.
All I could see was him.
Before I could stop myself, before I could even think, the word ripped from my throat like a primal declaration—
"Mine!"
Gasps echoed through the room, sharp and stunned. But I didn’t care.
I launched forward, wrapping my arms around Liam in a tight, almost desperate embrace. My fingers fisted the fabric of his shirt, my body pressed against his as if trying to rge us into one.
For a split second, he didn’t move. He just stood there, frozen. His heart thumped wildly against my chest, his breath uneven.
Then, slowly, so slowly, his arms ca up around .
His touch was hesitant at first, like he was afraid I would vanish. But when I didn’t let go, when I buried my face into his shoulder and inhaled him, he exhaled shakily and pulled closer.
"Mai," he whispered, his voice rough, uncertain.
I pulled back just enough to look at him, my hands cupping his face. His bright blue eyes were wide, searching mine, filled with sothing fragile. Sothing scared.
I smiled, my thumb brushing over the scarred side of his face, over the burns that had haunted both of us since childhood.
"I knew it," I murmured, my voice filled with awe, with certainty.
Liam swallowed, his throat bobbing. "You... knew?"
I nodded, my eyes locking onto his. "I knew it all along," I whispered. "I knew you were mine."
A sharp inhale. A shaky exhale.
His hands tightened on my waist. His lips parted, like he wanted to say sothing—like he wanted to believe it.
The rest of the world didn’t exist.
It was just us.
Just Liam and .
Just the bond, weaving between us, unbreakable.
"Mai!"
The sharp voice cut through the haze.
Liam and I both snapped our heads up, the trance between us shattering like glass.
My father.
He stood near my bed, arms crossed over his chest, his dark eyes sharp and unreadable. Even without speaking, his presence commanded the room, a force as unwavering as the moon against the night sky. His black hair was tousled, his jaw tight—but beneath that stoic mask, I could see it. The relief. The quiet happiness. He must have been worried sick.
Beside him, my mother stood frozen, her gaze darting between Liam and , her wide eyes shimring with sothing warm—she looked like she was about to burst from joy.
Ollie. Rylan. And even Elizabeth.
They stood in stunned silence, expressions frozen in various stages of shock, as if their brains were still struggling to process what they had just witnessed.
And then there was Eldur.
His silver eyes locked onto Liam and , unfocused, hazy—like he had just been wrenched from sleep and was still caught between dream and reality.
Papa Adrian and Aunt Juliette flanked him, each gripping one of his hands, their fingers tight with worry. But even as their focus remained on him, their gazes flickered back to —again and again—as if they, too, were trying to make sense of what had just unfolded.
The room felt too still. Too charged.
Like the brief mont before a storm.
"Would soone like to explain what the hell is going on?" My father’s voice was deceptively calm, but I knew better.
No one spoke.
The silence stretched.
Then, before anyone else could, I took a deep breath, lifted my chin, and said the only thing that mattered.
"Liam is my mate."
The room exploded.
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