NOAH.
A blinding, white-hot explosion of pain shot straight through my skull the exact second my eyes flicked open.
I let out a sharp, ragged groan, my vision spinning violently in complete, disorienting darkness. Every single muscle in my body throbbed with a dull, sickening ache. My temple felt like it had been struck by a sledgehammer, pulsing with a sharp, rhythmic agony that made my stomach churn with nausea.
I instinctively reached up to touch my swollen face, but my limbs felt impossibly heavy, like lead weights dragging me down into the earth. I blinked frantically, trying to clear the thick haze from my eyes, expecting to see the cold stone walls of the pack house corridor or the dark ceiling of a guest room.
Instead, the ground beneath me violently lurched.
