**Lucian**
I watched her kneel before me, her hands hovering over my wounds, and a sharp pang of frustration tore through my chest. Every fiber of my being screamed at me to push her away, to reject her touch, but my body betrayed me—tensing under her fingers in a way I hated to acknowledge.
Her scent filled the air, an intoxicating mix of familiarity and danger. Damn her for making me feel this way. I’d been fighting against it for weeks, denying the pull that gnawed at me whenever she was near. Ava—Peniel—whatever she wanted to call herself. She had this... *hold* over me. A curse I couldn’t shake.
“Don’t touch me,” I growled, but it sounded weaker than I intended. I shifted to sit up, fighting the dizziness creeping in from the blood loss. She hesitated, her eyes meeting mine, soft b
