Alexander’s POV
Joanne was a trembling weight against me, her lashes damp from exhaustion and her breath shallow. It had been several minutes since she partially transformed. The claw marks stung my chest, but I didn’t dare move as I held her in my arms, soothing her to sleep.
She slept as though the fear of waking would drag her back into the nightmare of the moon.
It wasn’t the claws that haunted me, though; it was her scent.
Faint but undeniable… wolf.
The palace wasn’t deaf or blind to it. Even now, whispers slithered through the corridors. Guards and courtiers spoke of a strange musk in the air, something not vampire, something not human. Enough to stir fear. Enough to stir suspicion.
And suspicion was all that Kyle needed.
I didn’t need James to mindlink me about the str
