<b>ALPHA </b><b>Elias’s </b><b>POV </b>


    More Rewards <b>> </b>


    Iunched myself into a full sprint toward the North side of the territory, pushing my legs harder than ever. The trees blurred past me, my sole focus on reaching where my warrior said he’d seen Lyra. The others quickly fell behind, their footsteps fading. But I couldn’t slow down -I had one goal, and nothing else mattered. I had to get <i>to </i>her. The warrior who contacted me hadn’t told me what condition Lyra was in–not a word, not even a hint if she was alive.


    That terrified me.


    He didn’t say if she was breathing or already gone. For all I knew, he’d found her lifeless and was too shaken to speak it aloud. There was something off in his voice–uncertainty and hollowness, as if he’d seen more than just her. My heart hammered, each beat echoing panic. My mind kept conjuring the worst–her beyond saving. I tried to push those thoughts aside. When we fear the unknown, our minds go dark. This was no different.


    Theck of information only fueled my fear. I was in the dark, the silence eating me alive. If he’d said anything in a different tone–calmer, more certain–I might’ve prepared for what wasing. He didn’t. So whatever he saw wasn’t ordinary. The idea of a world without Lyra shattered something deep inside me. She hadn’t epted our bond yet, but I’d alreadymitted–fully. I didn’t think I could go on if she wasn’t here.


    I needed her. I loved her already–deeply, permanently. She’d survived pain no one could imagine and still stood strong, fighting. No one in my pack had endured what she had, and


    yet, she survived.


    Lyra was the strongest person I’d ever met. She was my other half, the one fate set for me. I knew I wouldn’t survive her loss–not emotionally, not spiritually. Nothing else mattered–only Lyra, my sweet, broken, beautiful girl. I couldn’t live in a world without her.


    Just thinking about losing her brought tears to my eyes. But I refused to cry until I knew what I was facing. I had to keep running. The territory was massive, but finally I spotted one of my warriors standing stiffly by arge pine, tense,


    I skidded to a halt beside him, chest heaving, my eyes locked on his face. But he didn’t look at me. He was staring straight ahead, unmoving. I followed his gaze, and after a few heartbeats he finally turned his eyes toward mine. Without saying a word, he lifted one arm


    and pointed into the forest. I turned my head–and that’s when I saw her.


    C CHAPTER 19


    More Rewards


    There was a woman standing alone in the middle of the trees, her light brown hair long and rippling in the wind. She was wearing a white dress–lightweight, almost ethereal–and it


    flowed around her like mist. It wasn’t a hospital gown. It wasn’t what I remembered. This was


    something different. Something strange. I blinked, trying to process what I was seeing. Could


    that really be Lyra?


    I took a cautious step forward, heart hammering in my chest, and instantly caught her scent


    on the breeze. It hit me like a wave–<i>yes</i><i>, </i>that was her. No doubt. Her scent hadn’t changed. But how had she ended up out here? And how had she done it without leaving a trail for us to


    follow?


    I moved toward her slowly, afraid that if I made a sound she might disappear. And as I got


    closer, I realized she wasn’t the same girl I hadst seen in the hospital bed. She wasn’t the fragile, malnourished figure her father had reduced her to. She looked… different. She had her


    back to me, but I could already tell–she looked stronger. Her posture was straighter, her frame healthier. She wasn’t painfully thin anymore. Her hair wasn’t stringy or lifeless like before–it was full, soft, and stunning, catching the sunlight as it blew behind her. And even from behind, she looked taller–more solid somehow. Like she had transformed.


    She’d always been small–about five foot five. Dr. Eris once said her height was due to years locked away, deprived of sunlight and proper care. But now, illuminated by the golden light


    through the trees, she looked two or three inches taller. That alone made my breath catch.


    I nced at my warriors, expecting disbelief. But they all stood silent, staring at her too. We


    were frozen by the same question: Was this real? This radiant, transformed Lyra was unlike


    anything we’d seen. She was so different from yesterday that our minds could barely keep <ol><li>up. There was no logical exnation. </li></ol>


    I moved toward her, mesmerized. As I stepped, a twig cracked beneath my boot. She


    twitched, then turned gracefully to face me. For a moment I stopped breathing. There she


    was. Lyra. But not the Lyra I’d known. Her features were no longer sunken. Her face was healthy, her skin glowing, her green eyes locked onto mine with new confidence. She was the


    most beautiful creature I’d ever seen.


    My breath caught as our eyes met. The wind shifted. She closed her eyes, breathed in my scent, then smiled. As if something clicked, she began walking toward me, drawn just as I


    was to her.


    When we were finally standing face to face, barely a few inches separating us, I couldn’t stop my eyes from roaming her features. I wanted to take in every detail of her transformed


    < CHAPTER 19


    More Rewards >


    appearance. But she didn’t flinch. She didn’t nce away or look down like she normally would. No, she held my gaze with unwavering confidence, her green eyes fierce and calm all


    at once. She had never done that before. Not once. And then… she said it.


    “Mate<i>,</i>” she whispered, the word barely louder than a breath–but itnded with the weight of


    the world.


    It was the word I had been silently, desperately waiting to hear since the moment Iid eyes on her. A soft, almost disbelieving chuckle escaped my lips as a wave of emotion surged <fnb75a> ??? ????? ???????s ??? ?????s??? ?? find?novel</fnb75a>


    through me. I tried to keep my tears at bay, but a few slipped past my defenses, hot and


    unrelenting as they streaked down my cheeks.


    Lyra lifted one delicate hand and gently brushed the tears from my face. Then, without hesitation, she rose onto her tiptoes, wrapped her arms carefully around the back of my neck,


    and leaned forward to kiss me. It was a soft kiss, tentative and gentle, as if she wasn’t sure what kind of response she would get. Maybe she was still scared I would pull away, or maybe she wasn’t sure if I still wanted her now that she’d changed. But her lips were warm against mine, and for that brief second, everything else in the world fell away.


    She didn’t linger in the kiss. She pulled back slightly, still standing on her toes, her arms lightly resting on my shoulders as she looked into my eyes once more. This time, I reached out and wrapped both of my arms securely around her waist, pulling her close, drawing her against me. And then I kissed her again–this time deeper, fuller, pouring all the longing, all the hope and heartbreak and love I had bottled up into that kiss. It was everything I had dreamed of but never dared to act on, terrified that moving too fast would scare her away. But she wasn’t scared now.


    I still didn’t know what had happened to her during the night–how she ended up here in the middle of the woods, or how she had changed sopletely in such a short time–but whatever it was, I liked it. I <i>loved </i>it. And I was never going to let her go again. That much, I swore to myself.


    Eventually, I forced myself to pull away from her kiss, just far enough to catch my breath, and that’s when I realized something else. All of my warriors–everyst one of them–were gone. They must have slipped away quietly to give us this moment alone. But I couldn’t even be bothered to think about them. My eyes were still locked on Lyra, soaking in the impossible beauty she had be, the confidence she now radiated. She wasn’t afraid anymore. She wasn’t timid or shrinking into herself like yesterday.


    “How?<b>” </b>I finally managed to whisper, my voice hoarse with emotion.


    < CHAPTER 19


    More Rewards <i>> </i>


    “I don’t really know,” she said softly, her gaze still locked to mine without wavering. “I woke up


    here.”


    “You look so different,” I murmured, almost in awe. “You’re beautiful.”


    She smiled then–soft, shy, but real. “I don’t know what happened,” she repeated, her voice


    still barely above a whisper.


    “It’s alright,” I told her, pressing my forehead gently to hers. “I don’t care what happened. I only care that you’re alright. You can’t even imagine the things that were going through my


    head.”


    “I’m sorry,<i>” </i>she whispered, lowering her arms and wrapping them gently around my waist, holding me close.


    “I don’t me you,” I murmured. “I’m just so damn happy you’re alright.”


    “I’m fine,” she said, her voice quiet but sure.


    I turned, keeping one arm securely wrapped around her waist, and we started walking slowly together through the trees, heading back toward the town. But as we moved, I caught her ncing briefly over her shoulder–just a flick of her eyes–and then she looked straight ahead again.


    Kylie K


    follow me on i<b>********</b><i>: </i>*kyliek.author*