The heavy iron bolt of the front door clicked into place, the sound echoing through the silent cabin.
Aunt Mira was leaving, stepping back out into the rain with one final warning glare aimed directly at the Alpha.
“Zero stress, Ace. If her pulse spikes, her heart fails.”
The warning hung between them, thick and suffocating.
Rose remained pressed against the kitchen counter, her fingers gripping the edge so tightly that her knuckles had turned white.
Her claws were gone.
Her fangs had retracted.
And her eyes had faded back to their ordinary, deep human brown.
But the heat of the hybrid fever still burned beneath her skin.
She felt naked, exposed, and utterly terrified.
Her brain screamed, desperately trying to find a logical, scientific explanation for the word vampire, but there
