Alpha Damon (Sienna) novel Chapter 289

Delilah:

The light was too soft.

Everything felt hazy and my head just felt heavy, heavier than I wanted to admit that it was.

That was the first thing I noticed.

Not the pain, not the silence, but the softness of it. Like morning trying too hard to pretend everything was fine.

Like everything just seemed to be going back to the way it was. And yet deep down I seemed to know that it wasn’t. Deep down I found myself doubting how everything was going to be.

I opened my eyes slowly. The ceiling above me was familiar. Wood. Painted white. The infirmary. Lysandra has been here for a while. I knew this room more than anything else. And to find myself sleeping on her bed made me wonder where she was at all. She was the one who was supposed to be resting, recovering. I remembered the war. I remembered seeing her, but I didn’t know what else happened.

A blanket was tucked around me. Too warm. Too careful.

I blinked again, trying to regularize myself, trying to sit up, but I couldn’t.

“Finally,” a voice said quietly. “I thought that you wouldn’t be waking up at all.”

I turned my head.

Sienna was sitting beside me, Isla curled up asleep in her lap, arms wrapped around the little girl like a shield. Her eyes were tired, but they softened when she met mine. Lysandra was sitting by her side, both of them looking at me.

“You got us worried. You’ve been asleep since the war and we thought that something bad happened, something beyond our control or something that we would not be able to carry up with.” Sienna said, and I shook my head. It was impossible for me to just keep lying down like this.

I tried to sit up.

A groan left me before I could stop it. My entire body ached.

“You shouldn’t move too much yet,” Lysandra’s voice was soft as she spoke. “Your body is still weak. You don’t need to recover. You need to actually allow yourself to recover, Delilah.”

“Sienna,” I whispered. “What happened? How the hell did I end up being here?”

“You tell us,” she said gently. “You passed out right after you came back. No one could wake you. No one could actually explain what happened to you. We tried to ask Ethan. He wouldn’t tell us anything. You didn’t tell him anything as far as he said.”

Lysandra stepped forward. “You were gone, Delilah. Not just unconscious. Gone. Where did you go? And then suddenly when you came back, you just snapped out.”

I hesitated.

Their eyes were waiting, sisters, but also warriors now. Strong. Expectant. But I didn’t know the answer that I could give them. I didn’t even know what happened, where I was or why I was like this.

“I… don’t know,” I said. “I’m trying to remember but I can’t. All I know was that I was looking at Ethan one minute and then suddenly everything just turned black.”

It wasn’t a lie. Not exactly.

There were flashes, mist, a voice, something cold, but nothing I could hold onto.

Sienna’s brows furrowed. “What do you mean you don’t know? You are not even here. Ethan was worried sick despite him fighting.”

“I mean what I said,” I snapped, sharper than I meant to. “I don’t remember. It’s all fog. Gone. I’m trying to allow myself to remember anything, but I can’t.”

Lysandra’s

gaze narrowed. “Was it her?”

“I said I don’t know.”

Silence.

Sienna looked down at Isla, who stirred slightly before settling again. She didn’t press. “You’re safe now. That’s all that matters. Whatever it was, we’re going to find out about it. We’re going to figure it out somehow. Right now, you’re going to need to recover.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

I shook my head. “Of course it matters. Something happened. I feel it. But it’s like a hole, like something’s been torn out of me and I don’t know what it was. I don’t know what happened, it’s just all foggy. No matter how hard I try to remember, I can’t.”

He stepped forward.

I should’ve stopped him.

I should have told him to step away from me, not to allow himself to get closer to me.

But I didn’t.

His hand brushed mine where it rested on the blanket. Barely a touch. But it grounded me.

“I keep…” I stopped. Swallowed hard. “I don’t know why I feel safe around you. After everything that you’ve done, after what I heard you say, after how hurt I was by you, I shouldn’t allow myself to feel this way when it comes to you. But I still do.”

He didn’t smile.

Just whispered, “Maybe because you are.”

My throat burned.

But I didn’t let it show.

Instead, I pulled my hand back slowly.

“I don’t need saving,” I said, not quite sure who I was trying to convince. “I don’t need you to keep looking out for me.” “I know,” he said. “But maybe you deserve someone who doesn’t wait until it’s too late. How about I get you something to eat? I think that’s something. Anything that you can digest would help your body recover a bit. What do you think?”