phin

e, the man's body blazing like a furnace, and no matter how I strug

with something that stirred the very depth

My heartbeat was no longer fear, but a crackling resonance between us; where our bodies presse

, his ragged breath scorching my skin. "Finally..." he

os in my soul stil

ll of it receded, replaced by an impossible sense of belongi

, familiar yet foreign, brimming

confirmed through all f

nic sense of humor: on the worst night of my life, she thrust my

ned, and shoved me away, stu

t," he

ns, limning his silhouette: massive, radiating

s were ground out between clenched teeth

ing. He was cursed. He collapsed onto the bed, breat

desperate, agonized ga

hain, dragging me toward him, c

he question was absu

erpowering my fear. The moment my fingertips met his arm, a bolt of current exploded bet

ess - those glacier-blue pupils gleaming with a predator's light. Yet the tremblin

ld blink, with a grip like iron. "Don't... leave." His words ca

ove - just held my wrist, his thumb pressing rhythmically against my pulse point, as if drawing strength from it.

a prisoner of his need. I had bonded m

my wrist free, slipped off the bed,

d him for a moment - and f

of the Sinclair Pack, the wealthiest an

I should never have crossed. I scrambl

acking my bags to leave m

knocking. In sixteen years

." He set a folder on the

a moment: the transfer deed for my mother's orchard house at the edge of the territory - the little esta

ce he used for settling invoices. "They we

my mot

ood empty. Sentiment doesn't pay debts." He held out the pen

for my freedom with the l

k disappear down the corridor. The orchard. The n

y phone buzzed. An unknown number: "C

nore

endant, the one I was wearing right now, taken from a security camer

h it, treacherous as a struck bell, the

"Don't make me

nd I did the arithmetic my father had taught me without ever meaning to: an Alpha's reach was a weapon, and I had jus

night of my life. Fine. I had nothing left to lose bu

we

n his suit - the beast of last night tucked into this restrained shell, only a sliver of cold showing through h

logy. From a few steps away, h

opped in front of me, gaze dropping, sliding over the delicate chain at my throat, then suddenly leaned down. "Afrai