Letting Elliot linger in my thoughts all day had been a mistake, because by the time night fell, my mind refused to quiet. Every time I closed my eyes, his presence crept back in—uninvited, persistent, and far too vivid for comfort. Sleep didn't come easily, and when it finally did, it dragged me into a dream I would rather forget, one where instinct overrode restraint and my body betrayed me in ways that left me waking in the early hours, breath uneven and heart racing. I hated the way my wolf reacted, how easily it responded to his imagined proximity, as if recognizing a mate it had no right to claim.
