ARIA POV
For a split second—
I was afraid of him.
Not the kind of fear that made me want to run.
Not the kind that made me step back or pull away.
But the kind that hit low in my chest, sharp and sudden, because the look in his eyes wasn’t human yet, wasn’t controlled or measured or anything like the man I had learned to read—it was something feral, something unrestrained, something that had been pushed too far and had finally snapped free.
His pupils were blown wide, swallowing the blue, his chest rising and falling too hard, too fast, fists clenched at his sides like the only thing holding him together was force and instinct and something dangerously close to breaking.
And for a second—
I thought he might lose it again.
That I had pulled him back just enough to make him aware, b
