The Alpha impeded mate

la'

halted, my palm tightening on the leather-bound journal I'd unearthed in the dusty west wing of

ated by the flickering light of a single candelabra, stood Lucian Grey. His glittering eyes flashed like molten steel, his body tight, as if bare

edge in his tone. "I-I just wanted to know what you were hiding." Though it shook, my voice held

my. "The truth will wipe you off." "Try me," I said, my frustration driving more confidence. Lucian's eye

hing I couldn't quite identify. "That diary is not only filled with old tales. This is a

s. "To attract those unable to resist their interest. People similar to you enjoy this." I pushed back against the cold stone wall of the library

to have done it?" His voice cracked, and for a brief instant his burden was exposed. "From me, th

e. "Take me how?" The hand of Lucian emerged, his fingers touching my cheek. Though it was feather-ligh

. I could not ignore the magnetic attraction between us, the way his presence occupied every vacant place within me. It

on the brink of something primordial for all his control. And I wasn't sure whether I wanted to

rmth had been. "Like what?" I asked, pushing beyond the lump in my throat and demanded. "Like you are someone worth rescuing?" His l

msel you could imprison in a tower to stay safe. Let me fight if this is also my battle." Lucian gra

brary off the old stone walls. "Tell me the truth; stop treating me like a child. What are you most terrifi

. Of what I already experience close to you." Tension permeated the air bet

inches from me, the distance between us vanished. A war drum drowning out all else, my hear

vering with the weight of the truth. "Not the beast, not the curse. Just you.

y waist, pressing me toward him as if he could shelter me from the world-or maybe from himself. I c

k with grief. "I can't. I won't." Before I could react, a low, guttural growl rippled t

y for a fight. "Stay behind me," he ordered, his voice the calm before the storm. But the growling grew louder

wolf charged in. Its eyes glowed an unnatural yellow, and its snarl sent chills

made my gut turn around. The man said, "Well, well," his yellow eyes fixed on me. "This is the small lam

ough, she'll beg me to." Lucian lunged, but before he could reach him, Darius fled in

rnal to my chest, as the weight of what I'd