Chapter 189

LUCIAN’S POV Darkness peeled away slowly, like a heavy fog lifting from my mind. My body felt wrong; too heavy, too distant, like it didn’t fully belong to me anymore. Every breath scraped through my chest, shallow and uneven, my lungs burning as if I’d been holding my breath for days. Maybe I had. My limbs were numb, then painfully aware all at once, pins and needles screaming beneath my skin. My head throbbed with a deep, steady ache that made thinking hard. Voices drifted in and out, blurred and overlapping. I can hear too many footsteps all at once. “Alpha,” someone called, closer now. “Alpha, can you hear me?” I tried to respond, but my throat was dry, my tongue thick. Then my eyelids fluttered open, but I shut it as soon as it did. “The lights,” I rasped. “Can you…” Immediately the brightness dimmed, relief washed through me as the pressure behind my eyes eased. I opened my eyes fully this time. Then I study the room slowly; white walls, familiar angles, the faint scent of antise