Adrian’s POV

Some nights start harmless.

This one didn’t.

The second I stepped into the Rusted Lantern, my wolf stirred sharp, restless, prowling beneath my skin. The bar was loud, bodies pressed together in the dim, amber light, laughter spilling through the air. But none of it touched me. Every sense was locked on alert.

Ethan spotted me and waved from our usual table, grinning like the world was simple. I slid into the seat across from him, pretending to be just another guy grabbing a drink. Pretending I didn’t hear every heartbeat in the room.

And then she walked in.

Sienna Monroe.

Ethan’s younger sister.

The one line I swore I would never cross.

She didn’t notice me at first laughing with her friends, head tilted back, hair falling like she’d mastered the art of careless beauty. My wolf reacted instantly, a low surge of possession I didn’t invite and didn’t want.

Ethan nudged me. “She’s back,” he said lightly, but the warning beneath it was clear.

As if I needed the reminder.

Sienna finally spotted us. Her smile softened, warm and effortless, and something in my chest tightened painfully. She hugged Ethan first. Then she turned to me.

The air shifted the moment she stepped closer.

“You came,” she said, her voice softer than the noise around us.

“I was in the area,” I answered, neutral. Controlled. A lie—because I’d driven fifteen minutes across town just to see her walk through this door.

She didn’t move away. Her eyes lingered, studying me with a quiet intensity that made my wolf push harder against the surface.

“You’re different,” she murmured.

“Different how?”

She shrugged, gaze still fixed on me. “Not the Adrian I used to know. You’re… harder to read.”

“Life does that to people,” I said.

Her lips curved faintly. “Maybe. Or maybe you’ve always been like this and I never paid attention.”

The wolf inside me stirred unwanted, uninvited, unmistakably hers.

“You’re observant,” I said, trying to sound unaffected.

“I learned from the best.”

For a second, everything in me stilled. She shouldn’t have that effect on me. She shouldn’t be able to reach past every wall I’d built.

Ethan returned with the drinks, and she slipped easily into the role of little sister again—safe, untouchable, familiar. But the damage was already done.

She had crossed a line simply by smiling at me.

The rest of the night passed like a blur I barely controlled. Ethan talked about work and people I barely remembered. I nodded, pretended to listen, but my attention kept drifting back to her—her laugh, her warmth, the way her presence pulled at something primal in me I’d spent years suppressing.

When Ethan stepped outside to take a call, she leaned closer across the booth, just enough to knock the air from my lungs.

“You’re quiet tonight,” she whispered.

“Long week,” I lied.

Her head tilted slightly, eyes glinting. “Long week… or avoiding what you’re feeling?”

The words hit harder than they should have. My wolf surged, clawing for space beneath my ribs.

“I’m focused,” was all I managed.

“You’re always focused,” she said softly. “But tonight… it feels different. You feel different.”

Her gaze locked onto mine, steady and unflinching. She didn’t look away she pushed, tested, tempted. And I hated how easily she slipped past every defense.

Ethan returned, and I straightened instantly. The moment broke, but the pull didn’t.

When it was time to leave, Sienna hugged her brother again. I watched from a distance I forced on myself, trying to ignore the way something inside me recoiled at the thought of walking away.

I shouldn’t have looked at her the way I did.

I shouldn’t have let her laugh get under my skin.

I shouldn’t have imagined what it would feel like if she leaned in just a little closer.

But I did.

And the wolf inside me felt it claimed it before I could shut it down.

I left before either of them, acting like everything was normal. Like I wasn’t walking out with a storm caught beneath my ribs. Like I wasn’t already addicted to the danger of her presence.

I told myself I’d stay away tomorrow.

But every step I took told the truth I didn’t want to face:

I wouldn’t.

Not for long.

And that terrified me more than anything.

But just as I reached the door of the Rusted Lantern, a sound cut through the noise—a soft voice calling my name.

“Adrian.”

Hers.

I froze.

I didn’t turn around. I didn’t trust myself to.

Then I felt it her hand catching my sleeve. Warm. Small. Certain.

“Don’t leave like that,” Sienna said behind me, her breath brushing my shoulder. “Not when you won’t even look at me.”

My heartbeat thundered once, hard enough to shake the restraint I had fought for all night. My wolf surged toward her touch, furious and hungry at the same time.

I should’ve stepped away.

I should’ve ended it here.

Instead, I stood there caught in the doorway, trapped between the life I swore to protect and the girl I had no business wanting.

“Adrian,” she whispered again, quieter this time. “Tell me what I did wrong.”

And that was the moment I knew:

I wasn’t losing control.

I had already lost it.