Aria woke to silence, the kind of silence that pressed against her chest and made it hard to breathe. The candles in her chamber flickered, casting shadows that danced along the cracked walls. Every sound the faint rustle of the wind, the distant drip of water, even her own heartbeat felt magnified.
Then she felt it.
A pull deep in her chest. Warm, magnetic, undeniable.
Lucian.
Her wolf stirred violently inside her, clawing at the edges of the seal. The sensation was overwhelming, like a fire igniting in her veins. Her hands shook, and she dropped the small cup of water she had been holding.
The sound shattered the silence, and she froze, expecting the Don or one of his guards to appear. But there was nothing. Only the heat, the longing, the pull of a mate she had never truly met.
“I
