her

ly. The silence in the room was a heavy blanket. As the adre

bbing reminder of Jonah's backhand. I could feel the swelling already,

o the armoire, my arm had scraped against a decorative metal sconce mounted on its

d me. I slumped back against the wall, frustrated and exhausted. The pain in my arm flared, sharp and demanding. My face thro

roat. My hand scrabbled on the floor for the letter opener. I found it, my fing

swung o

as A

ling the space. In one hand, he held a white

opener still held

ed to my face, and something dark and dangerous flickered across his expression-a storm of fury held in check by sheer force of wi

gether in a tight

of something like respect, and beneath it all, a raw, unguarded emotion tha

rides and knelt before me. Not on one knee, but a ful

l away from his overwhelming presence. The m

ble, the Alpha command soft but absol

my mind could argue. I

signing decrees, looked clumsy as he fumbled with a sterile wipe. He carefully took my arm, his touch surpr

g it briefly against his own palm to test the temperature-before holding it gently to my cheekbone. The

steady. His

nd my voice, a mere whi

the cut on my arm. The antiseptic stung, a

ocking onto mine. They were so clear, so intense, i

It wasn't a question so mu

to stop it from trembling. The

re careful. I watched him under my lashes, the way his dark hair fell over hi

as a symbol of my doomed fate, but as a man. A man who was kneeling on the f

my past life wasn't just Jonah's evil. It was my own blindness. I

ou," I w

rm. He set the cold pack aside, his thumb brushing feather-light over the edge of the bruise on m

m force h

t admitting he'd watched the whol

y washed over me. What if he th

ted, my voice desper

kno

er's gaze was unwavering, a steady anchor in my sea of

him, utterly

t like that. No que