Chapter 8
POV: Amara
Lyra refilled my wine glass slowly while Guinevere disappeared briefly to grab more snacks from the kitchen downstairs.
“You know I’m going to say something you won’t like, right?” Lyra asked carefully.
That immediately made me suspicious.
“I suddenly hate this conversation already.”
She smiled faintly before leaning back into the couch cushions.
“Riven isn’t…” She hesitated slightly. “He’s difficult.”
“That’s one word for it.”
“He’s not cold because of you.”
I stared into my wine quietly.
That somehow made me feel worse instead of better.
Lyra noticed immediately.
“Oh, sweetheart,” she murmured softly. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean?”
She exhaled slowly like she was trying to choose her words carefully.
“My brother has spent most of his life building walls around himself. He keeps distance from everyone. Especially emotionally.”
I thought about the way Riven looked at me sometimes.
Like he wanted to come closer and run at the exact same time.
“That doesn’t explain…” I stopped myself.
Doesn’t explain why he reacts to me too.
But I couldn’t say that out loud.
Lyra tilted her head slightly. “You’re beautiful. Smart. Funny. Any unmated wolf in this territory would be interested in you.”
My stomach twisted uncomfortably.
Because that wasn’t the point.
“Michael clearly likes you,” she added casually.
I blinked. “Michael?”
“He spent half the day talking about your discoveries.”
“That’s professional admiration.”
Lyra gave me a look.
“Oh my God,” I muttered. “Please don’t start matchmaking me with mining engineers.”
“He’s handsome.”
“He smells like metal and spreadsheets.”
Lyra burst into laughter.
“I’m serious.”
“And my brother smells better?”
Way better.
Dangerously better.
Intoxicating better.
I took another sip of wine instead of answering.
That was apparently answer enough.
Lyra’s expression softened slightly after a moment.
“I just don’t want you hurt,” she admitted quietly.
Something in her tone made me look up.
Not judgment.
Not manipulation.
Concern.
Real concern.
“You say that like Riven is dangerous.”
Her gaze flickered away briefly.
Not enough for me to miss it.
“He’s complicated,” she corrected carefully.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
Before I could push further, Guinevere returned carrying snacks triumphantly above her head.
“I bring carbohydrates and emotional support.”
Lyra immediately sat up straighter. “Perfect timing. Amara was about to interrogate me.”
Guinevere gasped dramatically before handing me a bowl. “Never interrogate the doctor. She controls medications.”
And just like that, the heavier tension dissolved again.
But later that night—
Long after the laughter faded.
Long after the wine wore off.
Amara would still lie awake replaying one thing over and over in her mind:
I just don’t want you hurt.
The next morning, I buried myself in work.
Which honestly wasn’t unusual for me.
Numbers made sense.
Processes made sense.
Silver made sense.
People—
Particularly one infuriatingly controlled Alpha—
Did not.
At least work made sense.
Silver obeyed rules.
Processes obeyed logic.
My body apparently obeyed nothing anymore.
Still, the moment I stepped back into Oak’s laboratories, my brain immediately started dissecting yesterday’s stabilization improvements.
The primary extraction issue had already been solved.
But now that the system operated more efficiently, smaller inconsistencies became easier to spot.
Tiny things.
Microscopic fluctuations in cooling density.
Minor stabilization delays during refinement transitions.
Things most people would never notice.
Unfortunately for everyone around me—
I noticed everything.
“Hm,” I murmured while reviewing one of the updated processing reports.
Michael glanced up from across the table. “That sound worries me.”
“The stabilization sequence still has minor density loss during final refinement.”
Michael blinked slowly. “You fixed this yesterday.”
“I improved it yesterday.”
“There’s a difference?”
“A huge one.”
He sighed dramatically like a man accepting his fate.
I barely noticed.
My attention was already locked onto the numbers again.
“If the secondary cooling phase begins three seconds earlier,” I muttered while sketching calculations across the report margin, “the silver maintains structural consistency longer during purification.”
Michael leaned over the table beside me.
Then frowned.
“…That tiny adjustment changes output?”
“Not massively,” I admitted. “But enough to improve long-term preservation and reduce stress fractures in weapon forging.”
His expression shifted immediately.
“Oh.”
“Exactly.”
Michael stared at the calculations another second before laughing softly.
“You know what’s terrifying?”
“What?”
“You see flaws nobody else even realizes exist.”
I smiled faintly despite myself.
The truth was…
I liked this.
I liked refining things.
Perfecting them.
Making good systems even better.
And maybe—
Maybe I also liked having another excuse to walk toward Riven’s office again.
Which was ridiculous.
Completely ridiculous.
Still, an hour later, I found myself carrying revised reports through the administrative wing anyway.
Unfortunately, Riven’s office was empty.
I frowned slightly before stepping back into the hallway.
Joseph appeared around the corner at the exact same moment, carrying several folders beneath one arm.
“Well, if it isn’t Oak territory’s newest overachiever.”
I rolled my eyes lightly. “I was looking for Riven.”
The second the words left my mouth, something strange flickered briefly across his face.
Hesitation.
Tiny.
Fast.
Gone almost immediately.
“He’s occupied right now,” Joseph answered casually.
“With what?”
Another pause.
“Pack business.”
Something about the answer felt intentionally vague.
I narrowed my eyes slightly.
Joseph smiled immediately like he knew exactly what I was thinking.
“Very mysterious Alpha things,” he added dramatically.
“That sounds fake.”
“It’s extremely real.”
I huffed softly.
Still, I handed him the reports instead.
“Well, tell your terrifying leader that I fixed another system.”
Joseph flipped through the first page and nearly choked.
“You did this today?”
“Mostly.”
His eyebrows lifted higher with every page.
“I’m starting to think we should legally chain you to the laboratories.”
“That feels aggressive.”
“Productive though.”
Despite myself, I laughed quietly.
But underneath it—
Disappointment lingered.
Because Riven hadn’t been there.
And the worst part?
I was becoming painfully aware of how often I looked for him now.
Pathetic.
Absolutely pathetic.
By afternoon, the heat returned hard enough to make concentration difficult again.
Not unbearable yet.
But there.
Always there.
Low in my stomach.
Heavy beneath my skin.
Restless.
I sat at one of the laboratory stations pretending to review extraction reports while my wolf paced endlessly beneath my ribs.
This was getting worse.
Not better.
Lyra arrived sometime later carrying another glass bottle inside her medical bag.
Her eyes softened immediately when she saw me.
“You’re pale.”
“I’m suffering.”
“That’s becoming your favorite sentence.”
“Because I am.”
A laugh escaped her as she handed me the medicine.
I swallowed it with considerably less dignity this time.
Still disgusting.
“Why does it taste cursed?”
“Because medicine is cruel.”
I groaned dramatically while leaning back against the chair. She gave me a bigger bottle of the medicine, and a tiny one of a sedative for “just in case,’ because she knows how dramatic I′m.
For a little while, the pressure eased again.
Not enough.
Never enough.
But enough to breathe.
Then—
Without warning—
The scent of cedar and cold smoke suddenly filled my head so vividly my pulse stumbled.
Riven.
I could practically feel him behind me.
Large hands.
Warm skin.
That low rough voice near my ear—
My breath caught sharply.
“Amara?”
I blinked hard.
Michael stood across from me near the lower worktable, looking concerned.
Not Riven.
God.
I pressed my fingers briefly against my temple.
“Sorry. Headache.”
That wasn’t entirely a lie.
Michael frowned slightly. “You should rest.”
“I’m fine.”
Another lie.
The problem was becoming horrifyingly obvious now.
My body didn’t just want relief.
It wanted him.
And apparently my wolf had become deeply committed to humiliating me about it.
Later, out of sheer desperation, I actually tried redirecting the reaction.
Because Lyra was right.
This had to be hormonal.
Biological.
Alpha pheromones mixed with delayed heat responses.
That was all.
So when Michael stood beside me later reviewing mining reports, I forced myself to focus.
He was attractive.
Objectively attractive.
Tall.
Broad shoulders.
Kind eyes.
A good wolf.
A very good wolf.
Nothing.
Not even a flicker.
Meanwhile one passing thought about Riven Oak’s hands nearly made me lose consciousness.
This was a nightmare.
By evening, I’d already taken another half-dose of medicine hours earlier than Lyra originally instructed.
And the terrifying part?
It barely lasted.
The relief faded faster every time now.
Like my body was adapting.
Learning.
Demanding more.
At dinner, Riven still wasn’t there.
And this time, I knew it wasn’t coincidence.
He was avoiding me.
Maybe Lyra told him what I confessed to her in girl′s night.
Great.
The realization sat heavily in my chest while conversation moved around me at the table.
Joseph rambled excitedly about the newest mining revisions while Guinevere argued with him about patrol schedules.
Lyra asked me questions about cooling stabilization processes.
I answered automatically.
Smiled automatically.
But underneath it all—
I noticed the empty chair at the head of the table constantly.
Which was ridiculous.
I barely knew him.
So why did his absence feel louder than everyone else’s presence?
“You okay?” Guinevere asked softly at one point.
I blinked back into the conversation.
“Fine.”
Lyra gave me a look that clearly said:
liar.
I ignored her completely.
After dinner, I took another dose before bed.
Then another half-dose an hour later when the ache returned again.
The medicine dulled the sharpest edge of it—
But now the heat simmered constantly beneath my skin no matter what I did.
Restless.
Demanding.
Wild.
Curled beneath blankets in the darkness of my room, I finally stared up at the ceiling in defeat.
The Moon Ball.
Of course.
It was only a week away.
Every unmated wolf’s instincts intensified before the Moon Ball.
Everyone knew that.
Which meant my delayed heat was probably colliding with hormonal shifts at the worst possible time.
That had to be it.
Had to.
Even if deep down—
A terrifying little voice inside me already knew the truth.
Because my body didn’t react to every wolf.
Didn’t crave every Alpha.
Didn’t lose control around anyone else.
Only him.
Always him.
And somewhere inside Oak territory tonight—
Riven was avoiding me just as desperately as I was failing to stop thinking about him.