Rowan's POV
The guard's knock came earlier than usual, sharp and hurried in a way that pulled me fully awake before I'd even registered the sound properly.
"Alpha." His voice carried through the door, tight with something I recognized immediately as trouble. "The prisoner's gone."
I was dressed and moving before the sentence fully finished, following him down the corridor toward the east wing with my pulse already climbing, every instinct sharpening at once despite the early hour.
Adrian's room stood open when we reached it, the guard who'd been stationed outside looking pale and clearly bewildered, insisting he hadn't heard a single sound throughout the entire night. I believed him. Whatever Adrian was, whatever allowed him to bypass ancient wards without triggering a single alarm, sl
