Aaron
The door closes behind Reza with a sound that shouldn’t carry, and yet it does.
Not loud. Not final.
Just… sealed.
The Alpha floor settles around me in its usual quiet, but it no longer feels neutral. The air has shifted, charged in a way that hums along my nerves and sinks straight into bone. I stand where I am for a moment too long, hand still hovering near the doorframe, listening to the echo of her presence fade into something softer, closer.
Contained.
That’s the word that keeps circling my mind.
Reza is contained now. Under my roof. Under my authority.
Under me.
Shay surges at the thought, sharp and immediate.
- Ours, he growls. Finally where she belongs.
“Careful,” I murmur aloud, voice low, pitched more to myself than the empty hallway. “That’s exactly the kind of
