ROMAN
I wasn’t supposed to be there.
That much I knew the moment I slowed my steps outside the door.
It was too early for movement like that—not the normal kind anyway. The house still carried that quiet, half-awake feeling where everything was just beginning to stir, where even footsteps sounded louder than they should.
That was why I noticed her.
Alpha Alexander's mother.
She was moving through the hallway with purpose.
There was something in the way she walked that didn’t match the hour. No hesitation, no pause, no sign that she had just woken up. If anything, it looked like she hadn’t slept at all.
I told myself I would ignore it at first. That whatever it was, it wasn’t my place. That I didn’t need to know.
If she noticed me again, she might think I was spying on her. She wou
