Chapter 57

Adeline’s POV

The phone rang the second I stepped out of the palace gates.

The vibration buzzed through my coat pocket, sharp, insistent, as if it could pierce straight into my bones. I froze mid-step. My hands went cold even though the night air was warm. When I pulled the phone free and saw the name on the screen, my stomach dropped.

Vincent.

For a heartbeat, I couldn’t breathe. My wolf, Eve, surged restlessly inside me, pacing like a caged thing. “He knows”, she whispered. “He saw you. He smelled you”.

My thumb hovered over the green button. My pulse hammered in my throat. Had he uncovered my identity at last? Did he recognize the herbs on my skin, the trace of my wolf under the layers of scarf and cloth? Did he know that it had been me who bent over Myra’s small body, me who eased her pain, me who pressed a sweet into her hand as though I had the right?

I almost let the call die. Almost. But then, with a breath that scraped my chest raw, I answered.

“Doctor Lean,” his voice came,