POV. LUCIAN
I emerged from the shadows with Eliza in my arms, as if that college room had never existed. As if that superficial world, that air contaminated with fake freedom and human routines, could dissolve behind my steps and be reduced to ashes. She belonged to my world now. To my territory. To me.
I took her straight to my room, opening the doors with a thought, letting the shadows that followed me seal the entrance behind us. I placed her on the bed with a delicacy that contrasted violently with the tremor contained in my fingers. As if I hadn't been about to break her. As if I hadn't felt the wild, ancestral impulse to take her by the neck and remind her who her Alpha was.
—Shit... —I whispered, pressing the bridge of my nose hard while the echo of her voice still resonated in my ears. She had defied my will. She had dared to escape. To forget me.
