Aveline
I stood still long after Matteo left me there—barefoot and seething, his scent lingering in the chill morning air like gunpowder after a spark.
He didn’t kiss me.
He wanted to. I saw it in the way his eyes darkened, in how his hand trembled against my jaw, hovering on the edge of surrender.
But he didn’t.
And I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or disappointed.
The sun was rising now, splashing its light across the estate like a mocking promise. Another day. Another test. Another game of survival. But for one brief second, I’d seen a crack in his armor—a flicker of the man behind the Alpha, the fire-wielding tyrant, the one who used pain like currency and power like a leash.
I’d touched his humanity.
And he’d run from it.
My wolf stirred in my chest, unsettled, confused. She d
