Chapter 294: The Edges of Truth

Orion swallowed again.

It was ridiculous, really. The man had fought creatures twice his size and barked orders at warriors who trembled at the sound of his voice—yet here he was, unable to look Sophia directly in the eye.

Sophia watched him carefully.

He tried to busy himself by nudging the fallen bowl with the tip of his boot, but even that small act betrayed him. His fingers twitched and his shoulders were stiff.

Even Noctis took in a deep breath.

Are we in trouble?

"Maybe not," Orion told Noctis. "Maybe yes too."

"Orion." Sophia called softly, but her voice was firm.

His head jerked up immediately.

"Do you... really not want me to clean the room?" he tried weakly. "It’s—uh—very messy."

She flatlined him with a stare.

"Do you really not want me to clean up the room?" he asked her.

"Orion," she called him again.

Orion turned to her then, the bowl forgotten.

"Okay," he said. "So... maybe... you don’t need to worry about people finding out about us..."

Sophia narrowed her eyes.

"...because they might... uh... already know?"

She stared at him.

He stared everywhere else except at her.

"Are you telling me that they already know," she asked slowly, "or are you asking me if they already know?"

Orion shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t want to deny it nor outright tell her. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Sophia blinked at him like she couldn’t believe her eyes. "Orion."

He refused to meet her gaze.

"Come here."

He shook his head. Just a tiny, doomed shake.

"Come. Here."

He caved instantly.

He walked toward her like a man approaching his own execution, stopping only when she tilted her chin up in silent expectation. He swallowed—again, loudly—and picked up the chair he had fallen from before and sat on it.

"Tell me," she said softly, "what you really mean."

Orion exhaled through his nose, shoulders sinking.

"Fine," he muttered. "Fine. But don’t be mad, okay?"

"Orion."

"Okay, okay, I’m talking. The... the pack already knows about us." He told her, finally looking back at her.

He saw the glare and quickly continued.

"I told Lysander and Brynhild and also Marta, but they were the only ones I told explicitly. Brynhild found out on her own though, because apparently I was walking about with your scent all over me like I was trying to announce to everyone that we were mated. At least that’s what she said, and I just thought there was no need to hide it, so I told her and Lysander," he told her.

"Okay?" Sophia asked, prompting him to continue.

"And I also didn’t mean to let the whole pack know before you woke up too. But then things kept getting worse. You kept hurting yourself," he said quietly. "And I know it wasn’t on purpose. It wasn’t like you wanted to hurt yourself, but you also couldn’t control it. You were not conscious either."

He shook his head once, sharply, as if pushing the memory away.

"And we discovered that the only way to keep you calm was if I stayed by your side. Anytime I tried to leave even for a short while, you spiraled. You were only calm when I was near you, with my hands in yours," he told her.

He didn’t need to tell her that. She knew how much she had needed him.

"So I refused to leave. At all."

"And that," he continued, "is kind of... how everything started unraveling."

"Marta got suspicious when I was able to calm you down one time and um... she may have seen the mark on your back because she was the one who changed your clothes when you collapsed. So I told her. But the others in the pack... I didn’t tell them. They just put everything together on their own, talking about how I didn’t leave your side at all, choosing to stay with you instead," he explained.

Sophia stared at him.

"I appreciate you holding on to me. I appreciate you making sure I was okay," she told him.

"I’m sensing a but."

"That’s because there is," she told him. "I know that at some point, everyone was going to find out. It was inevitable after all. I knew that, we both knew that, but there was a reason we decided to keep this a secret. There was a reason I decided to go with what you said and decided to keep it a secret."

"Yeah," he murmured.

"You were the one who told me," she continued softly. "You wanted us to explore this privately. Quietly. Without pressure."

He looked down.

"You said the elders would hound me the moment they found out. That they’d drag me into meetings and duties and ceremonies. That I’d be working nonstop."

"And I agreed, because I had my own reasons too," she whispered. "The thrill of enjoying this with you without the others knowing was nice. And the thought of not being hounded by the others in the pack... yes, I also liked it, but I also agreed because I didn’t want to look like I didn’t deserve to stand beside you."

His head snapped up.

"Sophia—"

She raised a hand.

"I’m not saying that for pity. I’m saying it because it’s true. I lost my memories, Orion. I came here with nothing. I can’t even remember the pack I grew up in. Or my childhood. Or my own mother."

His expression softened.

"I didn’t want people looking at me like I didn’t belong at your side until I at least had a chance to reclaim the pieces of myself. Or understand what happened and why I lost my memories. Even if I was... I still am... fucking scared of recovering them."

Her voice dropped to a whisper.

"Because what if my memories bring danger to the pack? What if I put you guys at risk and someone attacks again? Or I don’t know... something happens again where you guys lose your family and everything like what happened when the enclave attacked?"

Orion lifted his hands and gently cupped her chin.

His thumb brushed her skin with that familiar, grounding softness he reserved only for her.

"Shorty," he murmured, "I’ll tell you the same thing Brynhild told me when she found out we were together and I said something similar to her."

Sophia blinked. "What?"

"That this pack has faced danger before. We faced it when the enclave attacked, we faced it when we came here to Nirvana, we’ve already faced danger, over and over again. Even right now, we aren’t really safe." He leaned closer, voice dipping. "So, what if your memories bring danger to us? It would not be the first time we face danger."

Sophia’s breath caught.

"But—"

He shook his head.

"Listen to me, shorty. It does not matter what your memories hold. It doesn’t matter what the unknown is. It doesn’t matter at all. What matters is what you and I feel towards each other. And just so you know, whether you bring danger to the pack or not, I’ll never stop looking at you the way I look at you now. We will fight, Sophia..."

She swallowed thickly.

"...we will fight. Except maybe... you don’t want to fight?" he asked her.