Evaline:
I should have gone back to sleep.
He told to.
But as I sat upright on my bed, watching him wince under the soft light while blood soaked through his clothes, I realized that wasn’t an option anymore. Not for .
The old Eva might have kept her head down and remained hidden under the covers, pretending she didn’t see a thing.
But I wasn’t her anymore. I was changing, for the better..
I pushed the blanket off and slid off the bed. "You are bleeding," I repeated quietly.
He didn’t even look at . "So?"
"So," I said, frowning, "you are injured. Badly."
"I’ll heal," he muttered, half-sitting, half-slumping into the chair by the desk. "Just mind your business and go to sleep."
"No."
His head turned sharply toward . His eyes were narrowed, the blue of them almost glowing under the light, but I stood my ground. I wasn’t scared of him. Not anymore. Maybe I should have been. Maybe there were a thousand reasons to pretend I didn’t see him bleeding all over the floor.
But I couldn’t.
He opened his mouth to say sothing else, but I was already moving. I grabbed one of the clean hand towels from my drawer and slipped out into the common room, heading straight for the small kitchen tucked into the corner. The dorm was quiet and filled with darkness, the only source of light was from the bedroom as I left the door wide open.
I wet the towel under cold water, wrung it out quickly, and hurried back with a bowl of water.
He was still seated, now watching with an unreadable expression.
"Take off your shirt," I said softly.
He stared at like I had just grown a second head. "What?"
"You heard . I need to see how bad it is."
"I told you, I’ll heal-"
"And I told you, I don’t care. Just take it off."
A tense silence settled between us, but surprisingly, he obeyed.
He tugged the tattered shirt over his head and tossed it aside. I inhaled sharply at the sight of him, not just because of the lean, well-defined muscles or the striking contrast of his pale skin against the blood, but because of the bruises, the angry red gashes, and the dried blood that ran down his side.
I dropped to my knees beside him and began to gently clean the wound on his shoulder.
He flinched at first but didn’t stop .
"Where were you?" I asked quietly, making sure to be as gentle as possible. "Who did this to you?"
"That’s none of your business," he said, but there was no anger in his voice, just tiredness.
"I figured you would say that." I glanced up at him.
He didn’t respond. Just stared at the wall behind with his jaw set tight.
"I won’t tell anyone," I added. "But soone needs to take care of this."
"They’ll heal," he muttered.
"I know," I replied. "Werewolf thing. But you are still bleeding right now. You are not invincible, just really good at pretending you are."
For a mont, I thought he might get up and walk out. But he didn’t. He stayed and let clean the worst of the blood. The silence between us wasn’t comfortable, but it wasn’t hostile either. More like... cautiously curious.
I wrung out the towel again and pressed it gently to a bruised cut near his shoulder.
"Do you always co back this late?" I asked even though I knew the answer.
"Usually."
"Do you always co back bleeding too?"
"Not always."
I gave him a look. "Comforting."
A corner of his mouth twitched, almost like a smirk, but it faded just as quickly as it ca.
I sat back a little, examining his injuries. Most of them had already begun to seal over. The skin was knitting itself back together at a remarkable pace, making wonder if he was an Alpha. "They are healing fast," I said.
"They would have healed faster if you hadn’t stopped to play nurse," he muttered, but there was no real heat behind it.
"You are welco," I replied with a shrug.
Finally, he leaned back against the wall, letting out a long, slow breath. For the first ti, he looked... tired. Not just physically. There was a weight on his shoulders that didn’t co from battle alone.
"Rowan," he said suddenly, without looking at .
I blinked. "What?"
"My na," he said. "It’s Rowan. Rowan Mills."
I arched my eyebrowso at the sudden self introduction. "You are telling your na now? After nearly two weeks of pretending I don’t exist?"
"You weren’t supposed to be my roommate," he surprised . "I applied for a single. Didn’t expect... well, you."
I sat down on the floor beside his bed, pulling my knees to my chest. "I didn’t expect to share a room with a brooding, bleeding mystery man either, but here we are."
His chuckle was soft. Barely there. But it happened, taking by surprise.
We sat in silence for a while after that. The awkward kind, sure, but it wasn’t as heavy as before.
"Thank you," he said a few monts later and I almost missed it if not for the deadly silence filling the room.
I looked up and asked, "For what?"
"For... not asking too many questions," he replied as he shifted his eyes to . "And for not treating like I’m broken."
"I don’t think you are broken," I said, watching him. "I think you are hurting. And trying very hard not to show it."
I was rewarded with another silence, but this one didn’t last for too long.
"You are... different," he said after a while, glancing sideways at .
"Different how?" I almost sounded curious.
"You don’t talk much, but when you do, it’s not like everyone else." He paused. "You are quiet, but not weak. Soft, but... not fragile."
I swallowed hard. Words like that ant more than I could say, especially coming from soone like him. Soone who saw things most didn’t.
"Well," I said, standing and gently tossing the bloodied towel into the small basket in the corner, "you are not as cold as you pretend to be, either."
His lips twitched again. "Don’t let anyone hear you say that."
I smiled faintly. "Your secret’s safe with , Rowan."
He lay back on the bed slowly, eyes half-lidded with exhaustion now that the worst of the pain had passed.
"You should sleep," he murmured. "It’s late."
I nodded and slipped back into my bed but not before switching off the lights. And just before I could have drifted off, his voice ca again. It was so quiet that I almost thought I imagined it.
"Good night, Eva."
Sothing in my chest twisted gently. I didn’t reply, but a small smile did bloom on my lips.
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