Night pressed against the Compound like a living thing — thick, heavy, crawling with danger. The forest outside was black, the air cold, the silence too sharp.
Lucien didn’t sleep.
He paced the length of his quarters, jaw tight, shoulders tense, every movement controlled but edged with something volatile. Rhett, Cole, and Jax stayed inside with us, forming a silent triangle of protection.
Marcus’s return had changed everything.
And Lucien felt it.
He stopped pacing only when he reached me. His hand brushed my cheek — soft, grounding, claiming.
“You stay close to me,” he murmured. “No matter what happens.”
I nodded. “I will.”
He exhaled — slow, relieved, fragile.
But the relief didn’t last.
A sharp alarm blared through the Compound.
Not the perimeter alarm.
Not the surveillance
