BBB-CHAP4- WAKING SHADOWS

SELENE’S POV

Pain coursed through my body, dragging me into conciousness like a clawed hand tearing the depth of dark, dreamless water. My eyelids felt as if they were weighted down with lead, but i forced them open. The world blurred before me, soft amber light from a single lantern, the steady crackle of a distand fire,and the faint scent of herbs and earth. Where was I?

I shifted, trying to sit up, and immediately regretted it. A sharp ache lanced through my side, forcing a gasp from my lips. My head spun. My hands fumbled against the blankes covering me, and it was then i realized I wasn’t on the cold battlefield anymore.

The last thing I remembered was Lucian’s face, his voice calling out to me as I collapsed. I could still feel his arms around me, strong and steady, sheilding me from whatever came next. But now he was gone, and i was in a room i did not recognize.

“Easy,” A soft voice murmured.

I turned sharply toward the sound, too sharply. Pain flared in my neck, but i bit back graon. A woman stood in the corner of the room, her presence calm and unassuming. She had thick, dark hair braided over one shoulder and a face that was neither young nor old, but marked with wisdom I couldn’t place. She wasn’t a wolf, her eyes gave her out. They were a shade golden, too luminous, even inthe dim light.

“Wherebam I?” my voice came out hoarse, barely more than a whiaper.

“You’re safe,” the woman replied, stepping closer with a bowl in her hands. “We’re in Raven pack territory, in the healing quarters. You’ve been unconcious for almost a day.”

“I need to….”

“You need to rest,” she interrupted, her tone gentle but firm. She set the bowl on the small table beside the bed and crouched down to meet my gaze. “You nearly burned yourself out completely. Your body is still mending itself.”

Burned out. The phrase settled heavily in my mind. I could remember the moment I had unleased everything- every ouced of power i possessed, every fragment of strenght I could summon. It had felt like tearing something vital out of myself, like ripping open a part of my soul. The shadowed figure had fallen, its dark presence dissipating into nothing, but the cost….

“Lucian,” I said, the name tumbling out of before i could stop it. “Where is he?”

The woman smiled faintly. “Alive, unharmed.”

“ Drink this,” the woman said, handing me a steaming cup. The liquid inside smelled faintly bitter, like ground roots and something metallic.

“What is it?” I asked, taking the cup hesitantly.

“Something to help with the pain,” she replid simply. “And to steady your magic.”

My fingers tightened around the cup. Steady my magic. It was such a clinical way to describe the chaos surging beneath my skin. My power had always felt like a tide- unpredictable, rising and falling with my emotions. But now, it felt… different. Wilder. Like a storm I couldn’t contain.

I sipped the drink, grimacing at the taste, but the warmth that spread through me was immediately. It dulled the sharp edges of my pain, enogh for me to sit up fully and take in my surroundings.

“Thank you,” I said queitly, handing the faint outline of trees against the night sky. The empty cup back to her.

She nodded, her golden eyes studying me closely. “I’m called Maris,” she said. “I’m one of the healers here. You’re fortunate, you know. Few would have survived what you did.”

Her words sent a shiver down my spine. I wanted to ask what she meant, but I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer. Instead, I shiftef the conversation. “The figure….the one I fought what happened to it?”

Maris’s expression darkened. “Gone,” she said. “For now, but something like tha doesn’t simply vanish. It’ll be back, and it will want you more than ever.”

Her words confirmed what I already knew. Whatever that creaature had been, it wasn’t finished with me. And I still didn’t understand why.

Before I could ask anything else, the door creaked open. My heart leaped into my throat as Lucian stepped inside. He looked exausted- his usually sharp features drawn tight wit worry, dark circles under his eyes. But the moment his gaze met mine, something in him switced.

“You’re awake,”Lucian said, his voice neutral, though his gaze was sharp as it settled on me.

I tried to smile, but it felt weak. “You look terrible,” I said, testing the waters, hoping for a trace of warmth.

His lips twitched, but not into the smirk I expected. Instead, his expression hardened, his blue eyes cold and assessing. “You’re to talk.”

Maris stood, gathering her things. “She’ll need more rest,” she said, addressing Lucian, not me. “ but she’s stable now.|

He nodded curtly, his attention still fixed on me, as though I were a puzzle he couldn’t queit piece together.

When Maris left, the silence between us was heavy, oppressive even. I fought thr instinct to look away, but the weight of his stare bore down on me like a physical thing.

“You shouldn’t have done it,” he said finally, his voice like ice.

He crossed the room in measured steps. Pushing the chair behind the bed closer. Sitting down, he leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees, his eyes leveled with mine. “Whatever that was back there- whatever power you unleased. You risked everything do you rea;lize how reckless that was?”

“I was trying to protect you,” I said, my voice rising defensively.

His jaw tightened, his expression unreadable. “Protect me?that’s rich comimg from the one who almost got herself killed. You’re a prisoner. Selene. You don’t get to play the hero.”

His words struck like a blow, stealing the breath from my lungs. I clenched tye blanket around me, trying to mask the hurt that flared up in my chest. “Is that all I am to you,? a prisoner?”

“What exactly were you thinking, that because to defeated the figure you’ve earned your freedom? No, that’s exactly what you’re,” he said, his tone unyeilding, “and untill I understand what you’re capable of, you’re going to stay that way.”

I stared at him, disbelief mingling with a bitter ache. “Lucian, i…”

He cut me off with a sharp gestures. “You’ll stay in this room untill i decide otherwise. Do you understand me? No more heroics. No more risking your life.”

Anger flared in me, burning away the remnants of pain and exhauation. “You think locking me up is going to stop anything? That is going to stop whatever is coming for me?”

“Whatever is coming for you is my problem now,” he said, his voice low and hard. “You gave up that right when the moon godess decided to bond us together.”

I wanted to scream at him, to shake him,to force him to see that i hadn’t had a choice. Butthe steel in his gaze left no room for argument. His mind was already made up, and no amount of reasoning was going to change that.

For a long moment, we stared at each other, the silence between us as a bowstring. Finally he stood, his movement delibrate and controlled.

“Get  some rest,” he said, his tone clipped. “You will need it.”

And with that he turned and walked out, the door closing behind him with a soft but final thud.

I sank back into the pillows, that fight draining out of me as quickly as it had flared. Anger simmered beneath the surface, but it was the dissapointment that cut the deepest.

Lucian didn’t care. Or if he did, he buried it beneath the layers of authority and control. To keep him, i was just another problem to manage, another risk to contain.

Which made me wonder why he kidnapped me in the first place, and then try to fight to keep me alive.

But i wasn’t going to stay locked up forever. One way or another, I would find a way to take control of my fate.