The alarm didn’t ring.
It took me exactly three seconds after waking to realize that I was late, spectacularly, fatally late. My room was too bright for dawn, too quiet for a 4 a.m. call time, and the knot in my stomach began to twist before I even reached for my wristwatch.
6:02 a.m.
For a full moment, I just sat there staring at the time like I could somehow blink it back two hours. Then my body kicked into panic mode.
No.
No, no, no.
An entire hour past Aklan’s call time.
“s**t,” I muttered, scrambling off the bed so fast my sheets tangled around my feet. The room was cold, the floor colder, and my heart wouldn’t stop racing. Aklan Draven was going to kill me. Not figuratively—he’d actually promised to show me what death felt like if I was late.
I was so, so screwed.
I didn’t e
