Beauty, in the Beast World

Secrets of a Vanished Life

Lila sat up abruptly, her body trembling and slick with cold sweat, her breath shallow as she blinked away the remnants of the memories. Atlas, Lyris, and Zache stood before her, their eyes fixed on her with a mixture of worry and uncertainty. Atlas, his strong features gaunt from sleepless nights, had dark circles under his eyes. His expression, torn between relief and deep concern, was the first thing she saw as she struggled to orient herself.

"Who is Tanner, my love?" Atlas asked gently, his voice thick with emotion. He kept his distance at first, afraid of startling her, yet his protective instincts were nearly impossible to contain.

Lila's eyes flashed, wide with realization, as the name brought forth a torrent of emotions that threatened to drown her. "Tanner..." she whispered, her voice cracking. "Tanner is my mate... He is from my tribe." Her gaze instinctively dropped to her left arm, where the spousal mark of a coiled green serpent had once proudly adorned her bicep.

Her heart sank.

The intricate pattern that had once symbolized her bond with Tanner, a mark of their love, was gone. Nothing but bare skin greeted her gaze now. Panic and disbelief flooded her, and her hand moved to her chest as if to anchor herself. Her fingers trembled as she pressed them over her heart, and a dry, heart-wrenching sob escaped her lips.

Atlas moved instantly, his ears pinned back, an expression of helpless sorrow crossing his face as he wrapped her in his strong arms. He held her close, one hand gently stroking her silver hair as her sobs grew louder, her body shaking with the force of her grief.

Lila understood what the absence of the spousal mark meant—what it had to mean. Tanner was gone. Her mate, the father of her children, was dead. There was no bringing him back. The finality of that truth crashed into her with a weight so heavy, it felt like her heart would stop from the sheer pain.

Atlas's grip tightened around her, though he feared her fragility in this moment. He could only imagine the agony coursing through her—an agony that even he, with his own fierce love for her, could not fully comprehend. He had heard tales of the heartache, the unbearable torment, that came with losing a mate. It was said to be capable of killing a male outright, and now, seeing it take hold of Lila, he feared the same fate might befall her.

Zache and Lyris watched, silent witnesses to her despair. Zache's purple eyes shimmered with shared sorrow, while Lyris, who had been the catalyst for the recovery of Lila's memories, remained still, his lavender eyes dark with guilt. The snake male knew that while her memories had returned, they had come with unbearable truths—truths she might not have been ready to face.

"Shh, I've got you, Lila... I'm here," Atlas whispered, his voice barely above a breath as he cradled her tighter, pressing his cheek against her head. "I won't let you go, no matter what."

But even as he whispered those words, there was a dark, lingering fear in the back of his mind. What if her heartache consumed her entirely? What if nothing he did could bring her back from the abyss of her grief?

As the storm raged on outside, echoing the turmoil within Lila, the cave fell into a suffocating silence. The crackling of the fire felt distant, drowned out by the weight of their shared fear and sorrow. Atlas's hands continued to stroke her hair, his own heart breaking as her sobs echoed through the chamber.

And though Atlas, Zache, and Lyris stayed close by her side, Lila's mind seemed lost in the past—trapped in the memories of a love she could never reclaim.

Lila's death-like sleep had consumed three entire days, and even after she awoke on the third stormy night, the storm within her had yet to subside. She had become a shadow of herself, barely speaking, barely moving. She lay upon the bed of furs, her once vibrant spirit reduced to a hollow existence. Only rising when absolutely necessary, she avoided the others, retreating into herself, her grief a palpable weight pressing down on the entire cave.