Odette's POV
Evander," I said—my voice smaller than I'd have liked, cracking at the edges like fragile glass under pressure—"I do not want to stay with you in the same room. Please. I'll do anything. I'll be good. I'll—"
He cut me off with a scream—his roar a raw, living thing that hit my ribs and made me flinch, my shoulders folding inward as though at its weight, the sound vibrating through me like a physical force. It was not loud in the way that strangers shrieked; it was a controlled explosion, a hurricane trapped in a throat, primal and unyielding, stirring something deep in my core that I wished would stay buried. The fury in it sent a jolt straight to my belly, twisting fear with an unwelcome heat that flushed my skin, making my breath hitch in a way that shamed me.
