"Then we go slow. One piece at a time." I shifted closer. "And you don't do it alone. Whatever you remember, whatever surfaces—I'm here. We face it together."
I cupped his face in my hands.
"They took your name. Your memories. Your control. But they didn't take you. Not completely. You're still in there, Stone. And I'm not giving up on you."
His eyes closed. A single tear slipped down his cheek.
Later, after Stone had finally fallen asleep, I sat in the chair by the window and watched the stars come out.
My mind wouldn't stop turning.
Stone had been a student. Here, at Frosthaven. Walking these same halls, sitting in these same classrooms. Living a normal life until someone decided he was "too strong" and dragged him into a white room to be unmade.
How many others were there?
Gray had never spoken enough to tell us his story. Ben flinched at loud noises and couldn't hold human form for morethan a few hours. The other ferals were damaged in ways we were only beginning to understand.
Had they all been students too?
Had they all been taken, restrained, broken apart piece by piece until there was nothing left but the wolf?
I thought about the dream I'd had. The white hallways. The doors. The wolves strapped to tables.
Not born. Not accidents. Made.
Someone had built a system for turning wolves feral. And they'd been running it long enough to perfect their methods, to know exactly how much pressure to apply before something shattered.
Why?
That was the question I couldn't answer. What was the point of creating monsters? What did anyone gain from it?
I looked at Stone, asleep on the bed. Even in rest, his face wasn't peaceful. His brow furrowed, his hands twitched, his jaw clenched against dreams I couldn't see.
He'd been someone once. Someone with a name and a future and people who loved him.
They'd stolen all of it. And they were going to pay.
Chapter eleven
Iwent to Cole's office.
I woke up that morning knowing exactly where I was going and why. I was done waiting for answers to find me.
His door was closed. I didn't knock. Just pushed it open and walked in.
Cole looked up from his desk. Papers in front of him. Pen in hand. The surprise on his face lasted half a second before it smoothed into something more guarded.
"Lumi."
I closed the door behind me. The room shrank. Too small for both of us and everything that hung unspoken in the air between us. I didn't sit. Didn't soften. Didn't give him time to redirect the conversation before it started.
"What am I?"
Not who. Not why. What.
Cole didn't answer. His body answered first. I watched it happen—the way his shoulders tightened, the way his jaw locked. He looked away from me. Then his eyes closed, like he was bracing for something painful.
The bond spiked. Sharp. Sudden. It cut through me like a blade, and I knew—I knew in that moment that he had the answer. That it was sitting right there behind his teeth, and he was choosing not to say it. Whatever the truth was, speaking it would hurt me. Not speaking it was hurting both of us.
