Chapter 24
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Lina
After a few days, I was tired of being treated like I was made of glass.
Knox hovered constantly. If I went to the bathroom, he stood guard outside the door. If I sneezed, he practically called an ambulance. If I yawned, he was ready to carry me to bed and tuck me in with a bedtime story.
It was sweet. It was also driving me absolutely crazy.
“Knox,” I said for the fifteenth time that morning, “I can pour my own coffee.”
“But what if you burn yourself?”
“Then I will have a minor burn and I will survive.”
“But-”
“Knox.”
He stepped back reluctantly, his gray eyes tracking my every movement as I lifted the coffee pot. I poured the liquid into my mug without incident. No burns. No spills. No catastrophic kitchen disasters.
“See?” I raised an eyebrow at him. “Still alive.”
“I just worry,” he muttered, looking adorably sheepish.
“I know you do. And I love you for it. But if you don’t give me some breathing room, I’m going to smother you with a pillow in your sleep.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Try me.”
He cracked a smile at that, some of the tension leaving his shoulders.
Then he stepped forward, cupped my face in his hands, and kissed me slowly.
Softly. His lips moved against mine with a tenderness that made my heart flutter, and by the time he pulled back, I had completely forgotten what we were arguing about.
“That’s cheating,” I murmured.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I knew his hovering came from a good place. He had spent a month watching me lie unconscious in a hospital bed, not knowing if I would ever wake up. Of course he was anxious and wanted to keep me safe.
But I needed to feel useful again. I needed to feel like myself, not like a fragile doll that might shatter at the slightest touch.
The one good thing about the past few days was the security situation.
Moonfang’s guards had arrived at our pack, and now everything had double protection.
Guards at every entrance. Patrols running around the clock.
Cameras covering every angle. The pack was completely, absolutely safe.
There was no way anyone could reach us now.
That should have helped Knox relax. It didn’t. If anything, his separation anxiety had gotten worse. He couldn’t stand to have me out of his sight for more than a few minutes. Even showering had become a team activity, though I wasn’t complaining about that part.
More memories had started to come back over the past few days.
Mostly from my youth and teenage years. I remembered my parents now, their faces clear in my mind, their voices echoing in my ears when I closed my eyes.
I remembered Sarah taking me in after they died, helping me through the grief.
I remembered opening the bookstore café, hiring Mika and Vivi, building a life for myself in Pine Valley.
The more recent years were still fuzzy. I had fragments of the twins’ early childhood, pieces of my time in Ravenshollow, flashes of Knox that made my heart ache with their intensity. But the full picture hadn’t come together yet.
It was okay, though. My visits to the doctor had told me I was healing fast. My brain was recovering, making new connections, filling in the gaps bit by bit. I was strong. I would get through this.
We had moved Blake back to our house with the twins a few days ago.
Sarah had been taking care of her, but now that I was awake and recovered enough to nurse, it made sense for our daughter to be with us.
The twins had been over the moon. Rowan had immediately appointed himself Blake’s official protector, watching over her crib with the seriousness of a guard dog.
Thea had decided that Blake was her personal baby doll and needed to be dressed in a different outfit every hour.
Which meant we had to watch them both at all times.
Thea kept trying to pick Blake up, and we couldn’t let her.
Both of them were too young for that. Thea didn’t understand why she wasn’t allowed to carry her baby sister, and Blake was too fragile for a well-meaning but clumsy five-year-old.
So there was always an adult hovering nearby, ready to intervene when Thea’s enthusiasm got the better of her.
Sarah, Serena, and Marcus came over frequently to help.
Knox’s parents had been surprisingly attentive, doting on the grandchildren in a way that Knox told me was very different from how they had raised him.
Better grandparents than parents, he’d said with a hint of old bitterness. But he was grateful they were trying.
Everyone had teared up when we told them our baby girl’s name. Blake. After Knox’s brother. After Noah’s twin. The man who had died protecting his pack, whose death had sent Knox spiraling into guilt and grief.
And when we had asked Noah to be the godfather...
He had actually cried. Full on tears streaming down his face, his shoulders shaking, his voice breaking when he tried to respond. In that regard, he was similar to Knox. They both wore their hearts on their sleeves, showed everything they were feeling without shame.
Noah had hugged us for a very long time. Then he had taken Blake from my arms and started rocking her gently, stars in his eyes as he looked down at his niece. His goddaughter. The baby named after his lost twin.
I was glad. Noah deserved happiness. He deserved to heal from the past as well. He was such a good soul.
Now, a few days later, we were at the pack building. Knox, Noah, Ryder, Hunt, and the tech specialist, Lucio, were all working in the main conference room, going over security protocols and trying to track down whoever had been intercepting our communications.
I had decided I needed to be useful. I couldn’t fight wolves. I didn’t have claws or fangs or supernatural strength. But I could help with the operation in other ways. I could bring coffee. I could observe. I could pay attention to details that others might miss.
So I made coffee for everyone and walked into the conference room without knocking.
I was Luna. I didn’t need to knock.
The men looked up as I entered. Knox’s face immediately softened when he saw me, a smile tugging at his lips. Noah gave me a nod of acknowledgment. Ryder looked mildly amused. Hunt was too focused on whatever was on the screen to notice.
And Lucio...
Lucio smiled at me with perfect white teeth and warm brown eyes.
“Luna,” he said smoothly. “How kind of you to bring refreshments.”
Knox had introduced me to Lucio a few days ago, when we were going over the guards positioned at our house. He was handsome, with dark hair and an easy charm. Polite. Professional. Very smooth. He smiled at everyone and used all the right words.
The others seemed to like him well enough because he was helpful. Knox had told me they were lucky he arrived when he did, right when they needed someone with tech skills. His timing had been convenient.
I didn’t remember him from before. I didn’t have any past loyalty to cloud my vision. No history, no established trust, no reason to give him the benefit of the doubt.
So when Knox had told me Lucio was good with tech, I had started to watch him carefully.
I set the tray of coffee mugs on the table and began distributing them. Lucio thanked me politely, his fingers brushing mine as he took his mug. His smile was warm. Friendly.
His eyes, though. His eyes were scanning the papers on Knox’s desk. Papers he wasn’t supposed to see. Patrol schedules. Guard rotations. The locations of our safe houses.
I kept my expression neutral and moved on to give Hunt his coffee.
Ryder was explaining a specific patrol route, drawing on a map spread across the table. I wasn’t really listening to the words. I was watching Lucio.
His fingers twitched on his keyboard. Just a small movement. A tiny tell. Like he was fighting the need to type what he was hearing.
There was nothing concrete against him, obviously. He hadn’t done anything wrong. He was helping them track down the hackers. He was providing valuable information. He was exactly what he appeared to be: a skilled tech specialist who had transferred to their pack at the right time.
But I was observant. I had to be. My gut was telling me that something was off, and I had learned to trust my gut.
Knox’s hand found my waist and he yanked me down onto his lap before I could move away. I let out a small squeak of surprise that made the other men chuckle.
“You didn’t have to bring us coffee,” Knox murmured against my ear, his arms wrapping around me. “You should be resting.”
“If I rest any more, I’m going to turn into a vegetable.”
“A cute vegetable.”
“There’s no such thing as a cute vegetable.”
“You’d be the first.”
I rolled my eyes but settled into his lap, letting him hold me while the meeting continued. His hand rested on my thigh, his thumb drawing absent circles on my skin. It was possessive. Comforting. A little distracting.
Lucio was running the presentation now, explaining something about firewalls and encryption that went completely over my head. I watched his face, his hands, his body language. Everything about him was perfectly professional.
Then the screen went red.
“What the hell?” Hunt leaned forward, his eyes narrowing.
Lucio’s fingers flew across the keyboard, his expression shifting from calm to alarmed. “Someone is trying to hack us. Right now. They’re attempting to breach our security systems.”
The room erupted into controlled chaos. Noah moved to look over Lucio’s shoulder. Ryder grabbed his phone and started making calls. Knox’s arms tightened around me, his body tense with alertness.
I watched Lucio work.
He seemed genuinely alarmed. His movements were quick, efficient, focused. He muttered technical terms under his breath as he typed, his brow furrowed in concentration.