✦ Chapter 47 ✦
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Elian's eyes fluttered open slowly, as if waking from a dream too fragile to release him completely. He did not remember when sleep had claimed him, nor when the night had softened into dawn. The only thing he remembered was Lucien's scent — cool like winter air, yet wrapped in a warmth gentler than any blanket he had ever known.
It still lingered around him.
Yesterday… or perhaps even earlier today, the familiar cramps had returned — those deep, twisting pains that coiled low in his abdomen like something alive. Ever since he had lived under Esper's roof, those pains had haunted him, arriving without warning, stealing his breath, leaving cold sweat trailing down his spine. He had learned to endure them in silence, to curl inward and wait for them to pass.
But now… they were gone.
Only Lucien's pheromones remained, steady and grounding, dissolving the pain as though it had never existed.
It was frightening.
