Xander’s POV
The moment her door closed behind her, I stopped pretending to be a functioning person.
I made it as far as the elevator before my hands started shaking. And by the time I reached my own floor, my jaw was clenched so tight I could hear my teeth grinding, and my wolf was clawing at the inside of my chest like he intended to tear his way out through bone.
I nearly missed the keypad twice. My fingers wouldn’t cooperate.
When I got inside, I didn’t bother with the lights. I stumbled through the dark apartment, one hand braced against the wall, my muscles seizing with every step like something inside me was trying to rearrange itself into a different shape entirely.
Fuck. Not now. Not again.
This was the part nobody saw. Not the board members who shook my hand at galas, not t
