EMMA
The library was thick with the scent of woodsmoke and the looming shadow of war, but inside the circle of Gabriel’s arms, the world had narrowed to a singular, pulsing point of heat. The news of the challenge—of Viktor’s betrayal—should have sent me into a spiral of pragmatic panic. It should have had me reaching for my laptop to calculate escape routes.
Instead, it made me hungry.
There was something about the way he looked at me after the message from Clara—not just as a woman he loved, but as a queen he was willing to die for—that stripped away the last of my human inhibitions. The "Bond" wasn't just a tether; it was an amplifier. I could feel his heart drumming against my own, a heavy, rhythmic thrum that demanded a response.
"Emma," he groaned, his voice vibrating deep in his
