ESSIE POV:

The long mahogany table stretched between us like an empty battlefield.

Damien sat at one end. I sat at the other. The only sounds were the occasional clink of silver against porcelain and the heavy, suffocating silence.

Mrs. Gable, the head housekeeper, stepped into the dining room, her footsteps soft and respectful. She approached Damien, hands clasped in front of her.

"Alpha, there's a call from the hospital."

My fork stopped halfway to my mouth.

Hospital.

The word sent an icy jolt through my veins. My face—already pale—lost whatever color it had left.

Damien's sharp eyes caught my reaction. He gave Mrs. Gable a curt nod, a silent signal to continue.

"It's about the Luna's mother," the housekeeper said, her voice carefully neutral. "The doctor says her condition has fluctuated. They'd like a family member to come in."

I shot to my feet, the chair scraping harshly against the floor. Panic closed around my throat. I looked at Damien, my lips parting, a desperate plea already on the tip of my tongue—but the words wouldn't come. I had no right to ask him for anything.

He watched my panicked, pleading expression, and a flicker of irritation crossed his face. He hated it when I looked at him like that. Like a cornered animal begging its captor for mercy.

He dabbed his mouth with a linen napkin, folded it precisely, and rose. His voice was cold. Flat.

"Prepare the car. We're going to the hospital."

I froze. I had expected a refusal. A cruel reminder of my place. I never expected him to agree so readily—let alone to come with me.

I stood there, stunned into silence, until his impatient gaze landed on me again.

"What are you waiting for?"

The sharp question snapped me out of it. I hurried after him, my heart a confusing tangle of relief and dread.

His driver—a stoic man named Benny White—was already waiting by a gleaming black Bentley.

Damien walked to the rear passenger door and opened it for me. A gesture of old-world courtesy, something I was certain he had never done for anyone before. He seemed to do it without thinking, on pure instinct.

I hesitated for a split second, then slid into the plush leather seat. He followed, settling beside me and closing the door, enclosing us in the small, intimate space.

His scent filled the car—cedar and musk—and I instinctively pressed myself against the door, trying to create a distance that didn't exist.

The car pulled away smoothly. I stared out the window, my mind consumed with worry for my mother.

A faint nausea began to churn in my stomach. I'd always had mild motion sickness, and the anxiety was making it worse.

Damien sat in silence, but I could feel his eyes on me. He noticed the sheen of sweat on my forehead. The way my lips were pressed into a thin, white line.

He leaned forward slightly, his voice a low command to the driver. "Steady, Benny."

Benny glanced in the rearview mirror, his expression unchanging, and the car's pace smoothed out almost imperceptibly.

Then a large truck ran a red light, barreling into the intersection.

Benny swore under his breath, wrenching the wheel and slamming on the brakes.

The sudden stop threw me forward. I was helpless against the inertia, my body lurching toward the hard back of the front seat.

In the fraction of a second before impact, a powerful arm shot across my chest and pinned me back into my seat. Unyielding. Absolute.

At the same time, Damien's other hand came up to cradle the back of my head. His own body absorbed the momentum, and he hit the interior of his door with a heavy, sickening thud.

The car screeched to a halt.

I was left breathless, pressed against the solid wall of his chest, my face buried in the fabric of his shirt. His scent surrounded me. I could hear his heartbeat—strong, steady, right beneath my ear—a stark contrast to the frantic, wild pounding of my own.

A low grunt of pain escaped him. That impact had not been light.

He released me, his arms unwinding from their protective cage. He sat up, his jaw tight with fury directed not at me, but at the world outside.

"Are you okay?" His voice was rough, laced with tightly controlled anger.

I looked up. For the first time, in the daylight, this close, I saw him clearly. I saw the deep furrow between his brows. And in his steel-gray eyes—raw, undisguised concern.

My mind went blank.

His instinctive, unthinking reaction had shattered my defenses. He hadn't calculated. He hadn't considered. He had just reacted. He had protected me with his own body.

I forgot to answer. I just stared at him.