LUCIEN
I didn’t want to come closer. I shouldn’t have. And yet here I am… I hadn’t meant to walk toward her. Hell, I had sworn I wouldn’t.
But the moment I saw Evelara laughing, actually laughing — with someone who wasn’t me… something ugly and possessive twisted in my chest. It dragged me forward like a chain around my ribs.
I stopped only when I felt her breath brush my throat.
“Stay away,” she whispered, her voice shaking.
I should have. I meant to. But the words that came out of me sounded like someone else’s—raw, cracked, and territorial.
“Then stop looking at me like that.”
Her eyes widened, and I swear that tightened me even more.
My lycan prowled violently beneath my skin, smashing against the walls I had spent years building.
I tore my gaze away, but i
