Adrian’s POV

Leaving her apartment should have calmed me.

It didn’t.

Each step toward my car replayed her smile, the way her eyes lingered on mine like she already knew the truth I was trying to bury. My wolf paced in my chest, restless and impatient, refusing the discipline I’d built my entire life around.

By the time I reached the office, my focus was gone.

Files blurred.

Emails meant nothing.

Meetings came and went.

My mind was on her—on Sienna, and the dangerous pull she had over me.

I shouldn’t want her.

Not when she’s Ethan’s little sister.

Not when she’s off-limits, untouchable, a line I swore never to cross.

But my wolf didn’t care about rules.

And the worst part?

Neither did I.

My phone buzzed.

Sienna:

Are you coming back tonight?

I stared at the message, already feeling the crack in my resolve widen. I typed the safest thing I could think of.

Can’t tonight. Work’s busy.

A lie. The kind that tasted like truth only because admitting the real reason felt far too dangerous.

When I got home, I paced my living room like something feral. Distance hadn’t helped. Work hadn’t helped. Nothing had.

So I drove.

Not because I needed to see her—

But because not seeing her felt worse.

And then she was there.

Barefoot. Relaxed. Leaning in the doorway like she wasn’t the earthquake ripping through my control.

“You came,” she murmured, voice quiet but deliberate. “I wasn’t sure you would.”

“I was in the area,” I said.

Lie.

Automatic.

Dangerous.

Her eyes softened in that way that made everything inside me tighten. “Adrian… you don’t have to hide from me.”

She didn’t know what she was asking for.

She didn’t know what she was waking inside me.

I looked past her, forcing my voice neutral. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not,” she whispered. “You’re… different.”

She stepped closer. Barely an inch, but my wolf reacted instantly—alert, hungry, stretching against the leash I was desperately holding. I kept my hands still. Forced my breathing steady.

“Life changes people,” I muttered.

Her lips curved in a faint, knowing tilt. “Or maybe you’re finally showing who you’ve always been.”

The words hit harder than they should have.

Because she was right.

I had always been like this.

I just never let anyone close enough to see it.

Ethan moved around in the next room—steady, protective, aware of everything. A reminder I needed to pull back. A reminder she wasn’t mine to want.

But I didn’t leave.

Sienna drifted through the room, humming softly as she cleaned a glass. Ordinary movements. Innocent. But to my wolf, everything she did felt intimate.

“You’re quiet tonight,” she said without turning.

“I’m fine.”

“Adrian.”

She said my name like a truth I couldn’t escape.

“You don’t have to lie to me.”

I looked away. Because if I looked at her, I’d break. “I’m just tired.”

“It’s always that,” she murmured. “Tired. Busy. Fine.”

She turned, leaning lightly on the counter. “You’re not any of those things.”

Her straightforwardness should have annoyed me. It didn’t.

It disarmed me.

“You’re not like anyone I’ve met,” she added softly. “And I mean that in every way.”

My wolf pressed hard against my ribs.

She didn’t know how close she was to danger.

To me.

Ethan’s voice drifted in from down the hall, grounding me for all of two seconds. But when I looked back at Sienna, her eyes were on me—steady, calm, braver than they should be.

“You don’t have to pretend,” she whispered.

I swallowed once, hard.

“Good,” I said carefully. “Because I’m not planning on leaving.”

Her breath caught.

Mine nearly did.

And that was the moment I knew I was already losing control.

Not because of what she said.

Not because of what I felt.

But because walking away from her was no longer something I was capable of.

By the time I forced myself to leave later that night, one truth echoed in my chest with every heartbeat—

Staying away from her was impossible.

And my wolf knew it before I did.

He wanted her.

Claimed her.

And the part of me that should have fought it… didn’t.

Not anymore.

I should have left the moment Ethan called her name from the hallway.

I should have walked out before my wolf reacted to her scent again, before her eyes softened in that way that always shattered my defenses.

But I stayed.

And that was my mistake.

Because just as I reached for the door—finally choosing distance over desire—Sienna spoke my name in a voice that didn’t belong to the girl I used to know.

“Adrian… wait.”

I turned.

She wasn’t standing casually anymore. She wasn’t teasing. She wasn’t trying to read me.

She was holding something.

A small velvet pouch. Familiar. Too familiar.

My chest tightened instantly.

She shouldn’t have that. She couldn’t have found that.

But she had.

Her voice trembled—not with fear, but with something far more dangerous.

“I found this in your jacket.”

Her eyes lifted to mine, steady and unbearably certain.

“Tell me why you’re carrying wolfsbane.”

The room went silent.

My pulse stopped.

My wolf recoiled.

And for the first time since this started…

I realized she wasn’t the one in danger.

I was.