CHAPTER 99MATTEOFRACTURED VIGILThe hospital wing smelled faintly of antiseptic, sharp and sterile, a scent that did nothing to calm the storm inside me. The room was quiet, the hum of machinery and the soft shuffle of nurses filling the space like a timid heartbeat. Santiago lay on the gurney, pale and slack, eyes closed, chest rising and falling unevenly under the healer’s careful hands.I stayed back, hands flexing, jaw tight, wolf coiled and restless, pacing in my chest. Relief mixed with anger so sharp it made my bones ache. Alessandro, that monster, was gone, captured, contained. And yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this calm was fragile, borrowed, and that at any second, we’d pay for breathing too freely.Travis stood near the doorway, his posture rigid, calm, the kind of calm that always made my wolf bristle. He was too controlled, too measured, but his words were precise and undeniable. Alessandro has been captured. He’d said it before, but now it hit me in the chest,
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