THE CURSE OF LUST
It was a puzzle, a living enigma, and somehow, that recognition stirred a different kind of awareness in me, one that made my chest tighten in curiosity rather than hunger.
And then I caught it. The scent. Not Julian's, sharp-edged with arrogance, not even Rowan's, constant, loyal, seasoned with centuries of shared hunts and quiet battles—both laced with obsession because of my curse—but something subtler, more deliberate. Ashford carried a faint trace of it, almost imperceptible, earthy and measured, mingling with old parchment and ink, with the faintest whisper of rain on stone. It did not pull, did not press on my body as the curse did; it intrigued, teased, demanded my mind before my fle