Lucius POV
The night stretched on like a curse—long, suffocating, eternal.
I don't know how far I ran or how long I stayed hidden in that patch of darkness, clamping my jaws shut and digging my claws into the dirt to keep from tearing into the one person I could never harm. Reason had abandoned me hours ago, swallowed whole by the rising bloodlust that gnawed at my insides like a rabid beast. Every breath I took filled my lungs with her scent—warm skin, soft breath, and beneath it all… blood.
Her blood.
Fresh. Untouched. Calling to me.
I had survived centuries without a mate; I had endured starvation, torture, war. But her blood? Her scent? It was enough to unravel me down to my bones. Men have killed kingdoms for less temptation than this.
I fled because if I stayed… I would have drunk her dry.
And then—just before dawn—the wind shifted.
And with it came a different scent. Thinner. Weaker. Mortal.
Blood.
Fresh… human… blood.
