✦ Chapter 23 ✦
Lucien woke with pain splitting his skull, a brutal, throbbing ache that made it feel as though his mind was tearing itself apart from the inside. He squeezed his eyes shut and dragged in a heavy breath, chest rising and falling unevenly as he forced himself upright. The room spun briefly, his vision blurring at the edges.
Then his nose twitched.
The air was wrong.
Not just thick with his own scent — sharp, dominant, unmistakably Alpha — but laced with something softer, sweeter, threaded through it like an illicit secret. Omega pheromones.
Lavender and peppermint clung to the air of the room, gentle yet intoxicating, sweet without being cloying, fresh without being weak. It wrapped around him, slid into his lungs, curled low in his spine in a way that made his jaw tighten.
His pheromones reacted instantly.
