Kalil sat alone in the hospital's rooftop garden, a place few visited. The concrete bench beneath him was cold, grounding. The sun had dipped low, painting the Port of Spain skyline in molten orange. But even the beauty of the horizon couldn’t cool the heat rising in his chest.

  He closed his eyes.

  She shouldn’t matter.

  Stacy was just a nursing student. Eager. Green. Human.

  He’d been surrounded by humans his entire life, had learned to navigate their world, speak their language, mimic their emotions. But Stacy....she was different.

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  Something about her presence cracked at his control.

  He remembered the fire in her eyes when she stood up to him. Most humans cowered under his tone- his cold, detached demeanor. But she? She looked him in the eye and reminded him she was not afraid.That should have annoyed him.

  Instead… it stirred something dangerous.

  It wasn’t just attraction. That was too simple. Too human.

  It was pull. Deep and primal. His wolf stirred beneath his skin every time she walked into a room, every time her scent drifted too close.

  Vanilla and fresh cotton.

  Innocence.

  It maddened him.

  Because his world wasn’t made for her softness. His life was violence wrapped in silence. A bloodline meant to stay hidden. His kind were shadows- rulers of the unseen.

  And Stacy?

  She belonged in the light.

  You can’t have her.

  His wolf growled in protest.

  Kalil dug his nails into his palms until crescent-shaped indents formed in his skin. Control. That’s what he needed. Distance. Discipline.

  He stood up abruptly, the air around him crackling faintly as his emotions stirred beneath the surface. A faint shimmer of silver laced his eyes for the briefest second before he blinked it away.

  He had no right to want her.

  And yet, he was already starting to forget what it felt like not to.