MICHAEL POV
I spent the entire night trying to figure out how to win Astrid over.
Not conquer. Not claim.
Win.
There was a difference, and that difference mattered more than the other Alpha Kings would ever understand.
The fire in my chamber had burned low hours ago, leaving the room washed in shadows and amber embers. I sat in the chair beside the long window, one leg thrown over the other, fingers tapping slowly against the armrest as I stared out at the pale horizon.
Sleep never came.
How could it?
Astrid had already done the impossible.
She had Karl's trust.
And Travis'.
I scoffed quietly to myself.
Karl trusted almost no one. Travis trusted even fewer. Yet somehow she had slipped past both their defenses as if their suspicion were nothing more than a curtain she could brush aside with a smile.
That alone made her dangerous.
And fascinating.
Which meant I couldn't afford to be like them.
