Lucian
For a second, I didn’t understand what I was looking at.
Then, everything in me went still.
The room didn’t move. The fire still crackled. Emma still lay warm and loose beneath my hand.
But inside my chest, something detonated.
Panic and awe hit at once—two opposing waves crashing so hard they hollowed me out. My lungs forgot how to work. My wolf went deadly silent.
No.
Yes.
It couldn’t be. It was.
I jerked back like I’d been burned.
“Lucian?” she mumbled, rolling halfway toward me, brows pulling together. “What’s wrong?”
I heard my own voice and barely recognized it. “I— I’m sorry. I need to… check something.”
Smooth. Very kingly.
“Check what?” she asked, pushing up on her elbows, confusion clearing the last of the haze from her eyes. “Did I—did something happen?”
“No
