XAVIER'S POV
The scent didn’t belong there.
I noticed it the moment I stepped into the corridor.
Faint.
Barely there.
But wrong.
I stopped walking.
Slowly.
Most wouldn’t have picked it up. It was too subtle, too carefully buried beneath the usual smells of the house—wood, fabric, the faint trace of wolves passing through.
But I wasn’t most.
And once I noticed it—
I couldn’t ignore it.
I turned my head slightly, inhaling again.
There.
Something sharp.
Foreign.
My jaw tightened.
Vampire.
It wasn’t strong.
Not like the scent that clung to their territory.
This was different.
Faded.
Like it had been here—
then covered.
I followed it.
Step by step.
Slow.
Controlled.
It led down the corridor I had walked through earlier.
Past the main hall.
Past the guards.
Toward
