Chapter 213: The Weight of Silence

Vivian’s POV

Something about the air inside the room felt completely wrong.

I could not quite explain it exactly. A strange prickling sensation crawled slowly down my spine, and a subtle tension clung heavily to every single breath I took. It felt like invisible shadows were pressing in close from every corner. My sudden unease must have been quite obvious, because Zahliver’s strong arms tightened around my waist just slightly, as if he could sense the dark mood too.

Dr. Leonard was busy flipping through his metal clipboard, his expression completely unreadable until he finally looked up to meet our eyes.

"Well, physically, everything seems to be in good order," the doctor said. "Your heart rate is stable, your vital signs are strong, and your memory should start trickling back little by little. Under normal circumstances, I would suggest keeping you overnight for observation, but... with how fast you are healing now, that does not seem necessary anymore."

He hesitated for a moment, and in that brief pause, something shifted dramatically in his expression. A flicker of deep dread, maybe even true fear, crossed his face. He glanced quickly over my shoulder and turned completely pale.

Zahliver’s arms around me instantly tensed up like coiled steel.

"What is it?" I asked quietly, trying hard to hold his gaze.

Dr. Leonard shuffled uneasily where he stood by the door, clearly debating internally how much information he should share. Finally, with a heavy, troubled sigh, he spoke up.

"I do have to warn you," he said, his voice dropping lower now, edged with something much heavier. "There is a risk that does not simply go away one tied directly to your unique shift. Every single time you transform, you enter a dangerous window of vulnerability. A moment when something else chooses which part of you wolf, beast, or human comes forward first. That moment is... extremely dangerous."

I stared hard at him, trying desperately to absorb what that actually meant for me. My hands curled tightly into fists against the hospital blanket.

"So you are saying..." My voice cracked slightly. I cleared my dry throat and tried again. "What does that mean for me, exactly?"

He met my eyes directly, his own gaze deeply haunted. "Luna, your body might not be capable of dying in the permanent way others do. But if you are attacked while you are shifting during that in-between phase... your mind could shut down completely as a defense mechanism. You would fall into a deep kind of coma. And the truth is... I do not know if you would ever wake up from it."

Before I could even begin to process or react to that terrifying statement, he glanced past me once more. Whatever he saw made him go deathly pale, and he quickly turned on his heel and left the room without uttering another word.

I just sat there on the edge of the bed, completely stunned. My thoughts felt like they were echoing in an empty void.

For the next two long days, I could not stop watching Zahliver. I tried my best to pretend that everything was fine, but the raw truth was that I was deeply worried about him.

He was quiet. Way too quiet. He hovered around me constantly, always attentive and soft-spoken, ready to give me anything I asked for... yet somehow, he felt miles away. Like I could reach out my hand and touch his skin, but never truly reach his soul. He would smile at me, but the smile never reached his tired eyes. He would skillfully distract me whenever I tried to bring up the doctor’s grim warning, acting like he did not want to talk about it at all.

And honestly? I did not entirely blame him.

I was frustrated, though. Missing Thanksgiving was one thing I could easily forgive that. But having to call my parents and come up with a half-baked, ridiculous excuse for why we had not reached out to them? That was awful. I missed normal food. I missed a normal life.

When I finally brought it up to him, Zahliver whispered something reassuring about making a big, wonderful dinner together soon. That sweet promise should have made me daydream happily about mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce, but the way he said it so soft and distant made my heart ache instead.

We were physically together, yet emotionally apart. I could feel his presence, his strong hands, and his familiar warmth... but I could also feel how heavily guarded he had become. It was like he was deeply afraid that if he got too close to me again, I might just vanish into thin air.

Sometimes he looked at me like I was made of fragile glass like he was desperately trying to memorize every detail of my face. His eyes would go completely glassy, lost somewhere in his own dark thoughts, before snapping back into sharp focus and locking onto me with an intensity that left me breathless. It was deeply unnerving.

He had even closed off our mental bond. I could not feel a single thing coming from him through our link. Not anger, not fear, not even love. Nothing at all. If not for the quiet moments when he thought I was fast asleep those incredibly soft touches tracing my face, the way he would curl protectively around me at night and press his face deeply into the crook of my neck with a shaky, ragged breath I might have actually started believing the terrifying distance growing between us was permanent.

Still... I could understand why he was acting this way. We were both thoroughly shaken. That terrible night had changed everything between us.

Physically, I felt much stronger now. My mind was finally clearer. I remembered every single word the doctor had said, and I knew I had to be far more prepared the next time. That is, if Zahliver would ever even allow me to shift again. Which, given the way he was hovering over me like a shadow, I seriously doubted.

Both my wolf and my beast had finally come back to me during these past days, deeply guilt-ridden and apologetic beyond belief. Even they could not explain why everything had spiraled out of control so violently that stormy night. The three of us were back in sync now, and together, we were watching Zahliver with the exact same quiet concern.

He looked... utterly exhausted. Not in the physical sense he was still as powerful and imposing as ever but there was a hollow, empty look in his eyes now. A heavy slump in the way he moved through the room.

Whatever happened out there in the dark forest that night had not just shaken me to my core.

It had broken something deep inside of him, too.

He looked completely wrecked.