Chapter 49

Chapter 49
Lyla’s POV

I loved slow mornings in the bakery.

The smell of warm vanilla, ovens humming, fresh dough rising in the air, it was the one place that still felt like home even when everything else around me was falling apart. The morning sun always crept through the windows and stretched across the counters, making the whole place feel soft, golden, and quiet.

At least, that was how it usually felt.

Today was different.

I could feel it the moment I woke up, that strange tired heaviness in my limbs. Not the kind that came from a long night’s work but something deeper. Something I didn’t understand.

I brushed it away and forced myself out of bed, got ready, and made my way to the bakery before Ella or Mrs. Beans arrived. We had a lot to prepare, and I needed the distraction. Meaningless thoughts were better than the ones forcing their way into my head every time I stopped moving.

Everything was fine, I reminded myself.

Damon held me when I cried. Rowan came to see if I was okay. Ella and Mrs. Beans stood by me. I wasn’t alone, even when it felt like the world was trying to tear into me.

So, I tied my apron, preheated the oven, rolled up my sleeves, and got to work.

I had just pulled out a fresh tray of chocolate muffins when Ella walked in, messy hair and all, yawning like she hadn’t slept for a week.

“Well, look at you,” she grinned, dropping her bag on the chair. “Already baking at sunrise, huh? If anyone tries to marry you, they better earn you.”

I laughed softly, brushing my hands together. “It’s not even sunrise anymore.”

“Whatever,” she said, stretching her arms above her head. “Can we talk about last night? Because everything I heard from the dining room was straight-up madness. The guards searching rooms? Dalia screaming? Damon nearly fighting Rowan? The whole pack is already talking.”

I heard her. I really did.

But all I could think about was Damon holding me, Rowan staring at me like I mattered, and the man in the woods saying Kaiden was coming.

I must’ve drifted off because Ella suddenly stopped talking and stared at me.

“Lyla… you’re not even listening, are you?”

I blinked, startled. “Sorry. I just… I have a lot on my mind.”

Ella narrowed her eyes.

“You’re thinking about Damon.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. You’re blushing.”

“I’m not blushing.”

“You’re totally blushing.”

I tried to glare at her, but she just burst into laughter.

“Fine,” I finally admitted, turning away. “Maybe I was thinking about him.”

“Aha! I knew it.”

“But not in that way,” I rushed, heat climbing into my cheeks. “We just… talked last night. That’s all.”

Ella raised a brow. “Is that what we’re calling it now? ‘Talk’? Okay, if you say so.”

I opened my mouth to argue again when something strange happened — the room blurred for a second.

Just… blurred.

Like the light shifted. Like my vision dipped. Like something was pulling me down and away from myself.

I gripped the counter lightly. Tried to blink it off.

Ella didn’t notice. She was still talking when it happened the second time — harder now. Like the whole room moved without me.

“Ella,” I murmured, trying to steady myself.

She looked up immediately.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m just… dizzy,” I whispered, the words barely getting out.

The tray slipped from my hands.

Muffins hit the floor.

My knees buckled.

“Lyla!”

Ella’s voice sounded like it was underwater. Everything faded into silence, but the silence didn’t feel empty. It felt thick, like something was pressing into my head, into my chest, pushing out air and thought and control.

I tried to reach for something, anything but nothing responded.

My arms wouldn’t lift. My legs wouldn’t hold me.

Then the floor rushed up to meet me.

My body hit the tiles. The world went black.



I didn’t know how long I was gone.

Darkness isn’t a space, not really. It’s more like the absence of reality. No sound. No feeling. No breaths to count. No heartbeat to follow. Only cold, still quiet, the kind that registered like a dream in my head. The kind that told me I wasn’t just asleep. Something had taken me somewhere else.

Somewhere silent and empty. Somewhere wrong.

And then I heard it; distant, soft, almost gentle.

“Lyla…”

It sounded like someone calling me from behind a wall. Far away. Familiar, but blurry.

“Lyla… Lyla, wake up.”

Light started to press in. Like needles. Like pressure.

And then suddenly—

“Lyla, please…!”

A jolt snapped through my body and my eyes flew open.

Breath filled my lungs in a sharp gasp. I didn’t recognize the ceiling at first, but then the details came into focus; warm lights, cream walls, pack medical room. A blanket over me.

I was lying on a cot.

I tried to sit up, but the second I lifted my head, a hand pressed gently against my shoulder.

“No. Don’t move yet.”

Damon.

He was sitting beside the cot, eyes red, hair messy, shirt half untucked like he’d ran here the second he heard something was wrong. He looked like he hadn’t blinked since he got here.

His hand didn’t leave me.

“Hey,” I whispered, voice rough.

He let out a shaky breath. “You fainted in the bakery. Ella called us. I thought—”

He didn’t finish the sentence. But he didn’t need to. His voice cracked in the silence. The fear was written all over him.

“I’m sorry,” I said without thinking.

“Don’t,” he said quickly. “Don’t apologize for something you couldn’t control.”

I swallowed. “What happened to me?”

“We don’t know yet. Pack nurses said your pulse was low when we got you here. Your body was cold but your energy was…” he paused, trying to find the right word. “Off.”

“Off?”

He nodded. “Like something drained you.”

The memory came back in pieces; the dizziness, the blur, the room moving, the silence swallowing me whole.

“I just… blacked out,” I whispered.

Damon leaned closer, brushing his thumb across my forehead. “Yeah. And you scared the hell out of me.”

That made my eyes sting for some reason.

It was the way he said it like I mattered. Like I was irreplaceable.

Before I could speak, the door opened.

Rowan walked in.

His expression made my heart stop.

He wasn’t just worried, he was furious. Brows low, shoulders hard, chest rising and falling faster than normal. He’d clearly just come from something intense, but his eyes… his eyes were glued to me the second he stepped in.

“Lyla.”

The way he said my name wasn’t soft or gentle or calm, it was urgent. Like a breath he’d been holding for hours.

I tensed. “Alpha Rowan…”

He walked closer, ignoring the chair entirely and kneeling beside the cot instead, closer than he probably even realized. Damon didn’t move away, but he watched Rowan carefully.

“How are you feeling?” Rowan asked, voice low, controlled, but not cold. A version of him I hadn’t seen before.

“A little weak,” I said honestly. “But I’m awake now.”

“You were unconscious for almost two hours.”

Two hours.

The number rattled through me like a stone dropping in water.

I thought it had only been minutes.

“I don’t… I don’t understand what happened,” I whispered.

“We’re working on that,” Rowan said. “But first, do you remember anything? Anything strange before it happened?”

I closed my eyes. “Just the dizziness. Twice. And then it felt like everything went dark. Like something pushed me under.”

Neither of them spoke.

When I opened my eyes, they were both watching me. Not just with concern but with something else.

Fear.

I sat up a little, ignoring the nausea that came with it.

“Someone did something, didn’t they?”

The silence answered for them.

Damon looked at Rowan. Rowan stood slowly, eyes flicking between us as if choosing a path in his head before he spoke.

“You were poisoned.”

The words landed like a blow.

I stared at him. “What?”

“They found traces of a sedative mixed into the batter you used today. A sedative normally used for werewolves during forced shifts or surgery. In high doses, it can shut down the nervous system.”

My hands went numb.

Someone poisoned me.

Someone wanted me unconscious.

Rowan didn’t stop. “You were the only one who ate from that specific batch because you were taste-testing. And because you were the one baking alone this morning.”

Ella…

Mrs. Beans…

They hadn’t tasted it. They weren’t affected.

It was me. Just me.

“Someone did this on purpose,” I whispered.

Damon nodded. “Someone who knew you’d be working early. Someone who wanted you weak not dead, but vulnerable.”

Vulnerable. That word rang in my head like a bell.

Someone wanted me weak, so they could what?

Kidnap me?

Frame me?

Deliver me to Kaiden?

My chest tightened.

“Lyla,” Damon said softly, noticing the panic in my face. “You’re safe now. We’re here. You’re not alone.”

But the thought still sank into me like ice.

“I don’t know who to trust anymore…”

Rowan shifted again, and this time his voice dropped lower, edged with something darker.

“Trust me.”

I looked up at him.

He wasn’t lying. He wasn’t saying it for show. He meant it. But something still felt like it was twisting in the space between us, a feeling I couldn’t explain. A pull. A pressure. A truth that scared me in ways I didn’t understand.

Just as the room felt like it was closing in again, a loud knock hit the door.

A guard.

“Alpha Rowan, we found something. You’re going to want to see this.”

Rowan stiffened.

He looked at me again and this time, it wasn’t anger on his face.

It was fear.

Not for himself. For me.

“I’ll be back,” he said, voice low. “Don’t let her out of your sight,” he told Damon, who nodded without hesitation.

And then Rowan was gone.

The door closed.

The room felt smaller.

I stared at Damon, and for the first time since I woke up, I let the truth out.

“I think someone really wants me gone.”

He took my hand again. “And I think they’re about to regret trying.”

I nodded slowly. “I’m scared, Damon.”

He moved closer, turning fully to face me. “You’re allowed to be scared. But don’t let fear decide what happens next.”

I inhaled deeply. “What if Alpha Rowan finds out who did this and it’s someone from the pack?”

He looked down, then back at me. There was a softness in his eyes that always surprised me.

“Then they’ll answer to him,” he said, calm and certain. “And trust me, nobody wants to be on the wrong side of Rowan when he’s angry.”

I swallowed. “I’ve never seen him angry.”

“You will,” Damon murmured. “But I hope not because of you.”

My gaze dropped to my lap again. Everything felt so heavy like the safety I thought I had here was suddenly full of cracks.

There was a knock at the door and before either of us could answer, it opened.

Ella walked in.

Her eyes were already filled with tears.

“Oh thank goddess, you’re awake.” She ran to the side of the cot, grabbing my free hand. “Lyla, you scared the life out of me.”

I smiled weakly. “I guess it’s a thing now. Scaring everyone.”

She shook her head. “Don’t joke. I thought… I thought something terrible…”

Her voice broke, so I pulled my hand a little and she leaned in to hug me.

For a moment, I forgot about everything.

Being wanted. Hunted. Poisoned.

It was just Ella. My best friend.

Someone who was always there. Someone who didn’t care where I came from.

“I’m okay,” I whispered.

She pulled back, sniffling. “Alpha Rowan said they found something.”

My heart jumped. “He did?”

She nodded. “He didn’t say what, but he didn’t look calm.”

Beside me, Damon and Ella exchanged glances, and something in my chest tightened. I didn’t like being talked about like I wasn’t in the room.

But before I could speak, the door slammed open again.

Rowan was back.

His expression had changed, completely. His eyes were fierce, sharp, and colder than winter. His hands were clenched by his side, his jaw tight, muscles tense.

Even Damon sat straighter.

Rowan didn’t look at either of them.

He looked at me.

“Lyla, I need to ask you something.”

My heart thudded. “Anything.”

His voice was steady, but the emotion behind it was cracked.

“Did you eat anything today that you didn’t make yourself?”

I blinked. “What do you mean?”

Rowan took a step closer. “Anything. Someone giving you food. Something not from the bakery. Anything at all.”

The answer hit me like a memory I had forgotten was important.

I slowly looked up. “Just the herbal tea that was sent to me this morning.”

Damon looked up sharply. “Tea? Who sent tea?”

I swallowed. “A tray of breakfast. They said it was from the pack kitchen. I just thought it was because I wasn’t feeling too well.”

Rowan was breathing deeper.

“Did you drink it?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “All of it. Why?”

He closed his eyes for a second. “Because the sedative wasn’t just in the batter.”

I felt the air disappear from the room.

“It was also in the tea.”

I stared at him. Then at Damon. Then at Ella.

And suddenly the fear I’d been holding inside cracked wide open.

“Someone wanted to make sure I collapsed,” I whispered. “Someone planned it.”

Rowan nodded once. “Yes.”

“Who?” Damon demanded.

Rowan’s eyes turned to steel. “Someone inside the pack.”

Damon stood up. “Who?”

But Rowan didn’t answer right away.

Instead, he looked at me again and there was something in his eyes this time. Something close to breaking. Something he wasn’t saying out loud.

“Lyla,” he said slowly, “I won’t let anything happen to you. Not while I’m Alpha.”

The words should’ve comforted me.

But they scared me more.

Because it wasn’t just about protecting me. I could feel it, from the way he said it, the way he looked at me like I was more than just someone under his protection.

There was something deeper he wasn’t admitting.Something I wasn’t ready to accept.

“You don’t have to stay,” Rowan said suddenly. “You can rest here or stay in the hospital wing. But I don’t want you going anywhere alone.”

His tone was final and commanding. But protective in a way I didn’t expect.

I nodded. “Okay.”

Rowan turned to Damon. “Stay with her. I need to prepare a report for the council.”

Damon’s chest rose. “Of course.”

Rowan left without another word.

But I watched him until the door closed.

And when it did, Ella let out a low breath.

“Lyla…” she said softly. “You realize Rowan would tear the pack apart if it meant keeping you safe, right?”

I looked down.

I didn’t know what scared me more.

That someone wanted me gone…

Or that Rowan would go to war to keep me here.