The silence after the bowing was worse than the chaos before it.
Aria stood frozen in the center of the room, her chest rising and falling too fast, too sharp. The echo of what had just happened the entire world of wolves bending to something inside her still rang in her ears.
“I didn’t do that,” she whispered.
But even she didn’t believe it.
Lucian was watching her.
Not like before.
Not just desire. Not just possession.
Calculation.
And something dangerously close to awe.
“You didn’t control it,” he said slowly.
Her eyes snapped to his. “That doesn’t make it better.”
“No,” he agreed. “It makes it worse.”
A faint pulse of light flickered beneath her skin again.
Both of them saw it.
Aria’s hand instinctively moved to her chest.
“Why does it feel like it’s… growing?” she asked
