Falling asleep on someone wasn’t in the rule book. Not here or at Lockswell, but it still happened. It was out of control.
Evander’s hand kept moving through my hair, slow and steady. His chest rose and fell beneath me. His arm was strong enough to not let me fall.
And my body? It was done.
Done fighting. Done bracing. Done pretending to be strong enough to endure whatever came my way.
My eyelids fluttered, heavy as stone. My fingers along his earlobe loosened, falling to tuck against my chest as I turned just a bit more into his hold.
My breathing deepened, the kind that happened when I was seconds away from slipping under.
I tried to surface, I tried to move, but Evander’s voice held me captive like nothing ever had before.
“Rest, sweetheart. Just rest now.”
Chapter 22
Kasey
I surfaced from sleep the way someone wakes up before their mind. Slow, heavy, and unsure if it’s safe to move. The first thing I felt was warmth. Not the kind that comes from blankets or sunlight, but from a body beneath me, steady and solid, rising and falling in a rhythm that didn’t match my own.
For a moment, I didn’t remember where I was. My breath caught, a tiny hitch in my chest and instinct told me to freeze. That old, familiar panic tried to claw its way up.
Don’t move. Don’t react. Don’t pay attention.
But something was different this time.
There was no cold floor beneath me. No harsh light. No voices waiting for me to slip up.
Just…warmth.
A hand rests gently on my hair. A heartbeat under my check.
My lids fluttered, heavy, and reluctant. The world came back into pieces. The weight of a blanket, the faint scent of someone I didn’t recognize at first. It was clean and warm.
Evander.
Memory hit me in a slow wave. The panic, the shaking. The way I’d clung without meaning to. The way the Alpha hadn’t pushed me away.
My fingers twisted against my chest, testing the world, and testing whether I was still here. The hand on my hair didn’t tighten or pull. It just stayed there, supporting me when I didn’t know I needed it.
My throat tightened. I hadn’t opened my eyes yet. Waking up meant facing whatever came next. But staying still meantletting myself feel this a little longer, and that was the better of the two options.
I breathed slowly; the air shook in my lungs and let it out even slower. My body was tired, still heavy, but the fear wasn’t as sharp as it should have been. Not with Evander’s heartbeat under my ear. Not with the hand in my hair.
I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do now. I wasn’t sure I could move even if I wanted to.
But for the first time in a very long time, waking up didn’t feel like a mistake.
I felt like I belonged, if only for a fleeting moment.
My body made the choice for me before I could decide on what to do myself.
I shifted just a little. Just a tiny adjustment of my head against Evander’s chest, and a soft sound escaped me. It was half sigh, half apology. My eyes fluttered open, but I didn’t lift my head. Not yet.
I wasn’t ready to let this comfort be taken away yet. I wasn’t ready to admit that I enjoyed this touch out loud either.
So, I hovered in that between space of awake but pretending I wasn’t fully. Close, but ready to pull back to the second Evander gave any sign I should.
