The Alpha’s Forbidden Omega
When the knock comes it is not Wren’s rhythm.
Three ordinary taps, polite, spaced, the kind any household steward might use.
I go completely still.
The bond-pull spikes hard, a protective jolt that feels almost like anger. I do not answer. I do not move toward the door. I stand exactly where I am and listen with every part of the ten years I spent learning what a polite knock can hide.
A second set of taps, slightly longer. Then a voice, low and careful, pitched to carry through wood without carrying down the corridor.