Page 55 of The Cursed Wolf King

And that was harder to trust.

The sound of a low knock on the door broke the quiet. Isabelle’s head shot up, her wide eyes darting to Raina before either of them moved.

“It’s Alpha Logan,” Raina said to me, and tilted her head as another knock came on the door. “You should probably let him in.”

I nodded, and stood, but didn’t move. I was afraid of breaking the fragile spell of peacefulness that had settled around me.

Raina opened the door.

Logan stepped in, filling the small space instantly. He looked at Raina, and she gave him a small nod before gesturing for Isabelle to follow her out.

“We’ll be back later, see how you’re getting along,” Raina said, closing the door behind them.

It was just the two of us for the first time since we reached Orion lands. Logan stood near the door, his arms crossed over his chest, as if unsure of what to say—or maybe just unsure of me.

His gaze dropped to my arms, where faint scratches and bruises from Grayson’s handling of me still marked my skin.

He stepped forward, slower than I would have expected, approaching me like I was breakable.

“Let me see,” he said, his tone soft.

I wanted to protest, to tell him I didn’t need his help, but the words caught in my throat. Maybe it was the exhaustion, or the way he’d looked so tortured in my vision. Or maybe it was the lingering memory of his hands untying the ropes earlier—rough, but not cruel.

Something about the way he was looking at me made it hard to refuse.

I set the mug down and reluctantly held out my arm. His fingers brushed against my skin as he inspected the marks, and I flinched instinctively.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, and I felt how sincere he was.

I nodded, letting him continue. His touch was gentle, his calloused hands strangely comforting as he turned my arm to examine the underside.

“My mom used to do this,” he said suddenly, his voice wistful. “When I was a kid. My dad believed in tough love. Said pain was a teacher. She…” He paused, his thumb tracing lightly over a bruise. “She’d sneak me into the kitchen after dark, patch me up and give me a wink.”

His vulnerability caught me off guard. “She sounds… kind,” I said, not knowing any better word for it.

“She was,” he replied with a bittersweet smile. “The pack relied on her leadership as much as they did his. She understood things my dad never did.”

His words stirred something in me, a memory buried deep but not forgotten. “My mother was like that too,” I said, surprising even myself. The words came out hesitant, delicate, like they might break if I said them too loud. “Not quite in the same way, but I know what you mean.”

Logan glanced at me, his hands stilling before he continued. “Yeah?”

“She used to hum when we were on the move, this lilting melody. We’d be hiding—I didn’t know what from, probably from the whole world—and I would listen. It made me feel safe, even when everything else was falling apart.”

The memory hit me with a wave of longing. I hadn’t spoken about those precious moments we’d had together in so long, hadn’t dared to revisit those days. Now, in this quiet room with Logan’s stability, the words spilled out.

“She taught me how to hide.” I really wished I sounded less meek as I said it. “How to survive. It wasn’t enough. I lost her.”

Logan’s hand moved to a small satchel at his waist, his movements purposeful but unhurried. He pulled out a tin, its metal surface catching the light. When he opened it, the scent hit me—tangy, herbal, with a faint floral undertone. It was soothing. There was a potency beneath it that made my skin prickle.

“This might sting,” he murmured, dipping his fingers into the ointment.

I stiffened as he leaned closer. Before I could protest, he began to spread the balm across one of the shallower scratches on my arm. The sting flared immediately, but I forced myself not to flinch.

“Hold still,” he said.

I wanted to pull away—to tell him I didn’t need his help—but his touch kept me frozen. Every brush sent a rush of heat racing through me. It wasn’t just the sting of the medicine.

It was him.

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