Chapter 19 :kiss him
Mara POV
Sleep didn't really feel like normal sleep.
It felt more like sinking into something warm and heavy.
Like lying under thick blankets you can't climb out of.
Everything around me sounded far away. I knew people were walking. I knew machines were beeping. I knew the hospital was busy. But it all felt distant.
I didn't know how long I stayed like that.
When I finally woke up, the light in the room had changed. It wasn't bright anymore.The sun outside was lower, and the sky looked orange through the window. The room felt calmer too.
My head felt a bit clearer. Not fuzzy like before. My chest still hurt, but it wasn't sharp pain. It was like someone pressing a heavy hand there.
I could move if I wanted, but my body told me not to try too hard.
I turned my head slowly.
Liam was still there.
He lay on the bed across from mine, covered with bandages. He had cuts, scratches, and bruises, but even those looked better than before. The ugly dark bruises had started to fade.
The bandages were clean, not bloody now. His breathing sounded steady.
He was healing.
He was going to be okay.
I remembered his voice from earlier. The way he said my name like he wanted to make sure I was really there and not disappearing in front of him.
"Just stay alive next time."
I almost smiled when I remembered that.
It was such a Liam way to talk.
Straight to the point. No long speech. Just what he thought. He had almost died, and he still talked like that.
I shifted a little on the bed. Pain shot through my ribs for a second. Not bad enough to scream, just enough to warn me:
Don't move too much.
A soft voice came from my side.
"You're awake again."
I turned and saw the healer. She was the same woman from before. Calm innocent face. Steady hands. She adjusted something on a small cart and then looked at me.
"How long…?" My voice sounded rough.
"Six hours," she said. "Your body needed it. Shock uses a lot of energy. People forget that."
Six hours.
It felt like one minute and like one whole day at the same time.
I looked back at Liam.
"How is he?" I asked.
"Already recovering," she said.
"Alphas heal fast. Faster than they should, honestly. He'll probably start moving before he's allowed to."
Yes. That sounded like Liam exactly.
She checked the bandages around my ribs. Her hands were careful, but she didn't treat me like glass. She simply pressed gently.
"You're stable," she said. "Bruising, muscle strain, exhaustion. Nothing broken. You'll be weak for a while, but if you rest, you'll recover fully."
Rest.
The word felt strange in my mind.
My life never really had rest in it. It was always work. Orders. Keeping quiet. Staying out of people's way. Trying not to be noticed. Trying not to cause trouble.
And now the Alpha had almost died protecting me.
The healer finished checking everything and nodded.
"I'll bring you some food soon,"
she said. "Soup and something light. Don't sit up too fast." She paused and added, "You're lucky."
I already knew that. Saying it out loud didn't change anything.
She walked away.
The room grew quiet again. Only the machines hummed.
Only Liam breathed.
I looked at his face.
He always looked serious when he was awake. Focused. Like he was holding the whole pack on his shoulders by himself.
Now he looked… different.
His face wasn't tight anymore. His eyebrows weren't pulled together. He didn't look like an Alpha everyone feared. He just looked like a boy who had finally stopped carrying everything for a little while.
Something squeezed in my chest, but it wasn't pain this time.
He didn't need to fight for me.
He didn't need to take hits for me.
He didn't need to lift me, carry me, or bleed because of me.
But he did.
And he didn't ask for anything in return.
I closed my eyes for a second and took a slow breath.
If I had been a normal omega, the beast wouldn't have chased me like that. It wouldn't have ignored others. It wouldn't have locked onto me.
It came for me.
Because of the mark.
Because something about me was wrong.
But nobody else could know.
A chair scraped gently on the floor.
I opened my eyes again.
Rowan sat beside my bed now. I hadn't heard him come in. Betas really were too quiet sometimes. He leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms, studying me.
"You look better," he said.
"I feel better," I said. It was true.
He nodded.
"The healers said you're going to be fine soon. You just need time." His eyes softened slightly. "That's good."
"Liam?" I asked right away.
"He'll be fine," Rowan said without hesitation. "He's already arguing in his sleep."
I stared. "He argues in his sleep?"
Rowan shrugged. "Alpha brain never rests. Even asleep, he's probably fighting someone."
That sounded exactly right. We both looked at Liam at the same time without planning to.
Then Rowan's tone changed. A bit more serious. Not angry. Just… Beta mode.
"Tell me what you remember."
My fingers tightened around the blanket.
"The beast attacked," I said slowly. "I ran. It followed. Liam came. He fought it. I blacked out."
Everything I said was true.
But it wasn't everything.
Rowan didn't look away from me.
"It didn't just follow you," he said. "It ignored two other patrols in the forest. It walked past them like they weren't there. It kept going straight to you."
My heart started beating faster.
"I don't know why," I said, keeping my voice steady.
He studied me for another quiet second. He wasn't accusing me. He wasn't threatening me. He was just thinking, weighing my words, watching my face.
Then he nodded.
"Alright," he said. "We'll figure it out another way. For now, just rest. Don't stress about it today."
He stood up like he was about to leave, then stopped and turned back slightly.
"One more thing," he said.
I waited.
"He was furious," Rowan said quietly, looking at Liam. "When he saw you lying on the ground. I've never seen him like that before."
I swallowed.
"He thought he was too late," Rowan continued. "Don't scare him like that again."
"I didn't exactly plan it," I muttered under my breath.
Rowan's mouth twitched. Then he left the room.
Silence returned.
Just me. Liam. Machines. Evening light through the window.
I let out a slow breath.
Then something changed inside me.
It wasn't the room.
It was me.
A warm feeling spread under my skin. Gentle. Familiar. Like the air thickened for a second.
Like something woke up.
Then it appeared.
The calm voice.
The one I knew too well.
[ SYSTEM ONLINE. ]
The world faded a little around the edges. Not gone, just less important compared to the glowing screen that opened in front of my eyes.
[ RECOVERY STATUS: STABLE ]
[ USER: MARA — CONSCIOUS AND FUNCTIONAL ]
The screen grew larger.
[ NEW MISSION GENERATED ]
My stomach tightened.
Of course.
Title: First Contact
Objective: Express your feelings through physical affection.
Requirement: Kiss Liam on the lips with his consent.
Reward: +200 System Points
Bonus: Minor all-round stat increase
Failure Penalty: stats will decrease.
I stared at the mission.
My face heated up instantly.
Kiss Liam.
On the lips.
With consent.
I covered my face with my hands for a second and wanted the bed to swallow me.
The System was serious.
It wasn't joking.
My heart pounded like I just ran instead of lying in a hospital bed.
Kiss him? Liam? The Alpha I could barely look at without my stomach twisting? The guy who had just nearly died protecting me?
I peeked through my fingers and looked at him again.
He was still sleeping.
His lovely hair was messy. His sharp jaw was covered in small cuts. His thin lips were relaxed, not pressed into a hard line like usual.
He looked handsome. Too handsome to be real.
And calm in a way he never is when he's awake.
I dropped my hands and glared at the floating screen.
"Why this?" I whispered in my head.
The System didn't answer with words this time. It just glowed calmly, like the answer was obvious.
Express your feelings.
What feelings?
I didn't know.
I felt a lot of things around Liam, but none of them had simple names. Safety. Fear. Warmth. Pressure. Wanting to run. Wanting to stay. All mixed together.
Two hundred points…
That was a lot.
And stat increase…
I needed to get stronger.
I was weak. Too weak. Couldn't fight. Could barely run fast enough. People had to protect me again and again. Liam bled because of me.
If I was stronger… maybe that wouldn't happen next time.
I stared at the mission again.
Kiss him.
With consent.
So I would have to do something even worse than kissing him:
Talk about it.
Ask him.
My ears burned just thinking about it.
I sank back against the pillow and groaned quietly.
"Why couldn't it be something like 'Do ten pushups'?" I muttered inside my head.
The System pulsed gently.
No answer.
Just the mission.
I looked at Liam again.
His chest rose and fell.
I remembered how his arms felt when he carried me. How his voice sounded when he shouted my name. How angry he looked when he thought I was gone.
My heart squeezed.
I didn't know what this feeling was
I only knew one thing.