-Elias Grayson:
When Sebastian helped me into bed, I didn't expect to fall asleep the way I did.
I didn't expect peace.
His presence was solid next to me, a quiet weight that didn't press or demand anything. I remember thinking I'd just close my eyes for a moment, just rest them, because everything hurt and my head was too full. But his scent—gods, his scent—wrapped around me slowly, carefully. The same pheromones that terrified me on his first day here, that made my wolf scared and my chest tight, did the opposite now. They calmed me. Smoothed something raw inside my chest.
I slept.
I slept deeply, heavily, the kind of sleep where your body gives up before your mind can argue. For a few blessed hours, I forgot that my father was dying. I forgot the healers, the whispers, the looks of pity. I forgot the marriage, the weight of it, the confusion of it. I just existed, warm and safe, with an Enigma behind me who has my back.
