The Word Medic Cassian Vale's hand caught my jaw and pinned it to wet brick before Ethan finished the word medic. Rain had glued my thin scrub top to my chest. His knuckle dragged the soaked cotton over the lace I wore underneath like a secret, rough and deliberate. Leather. Cedar. A dark musk that didn't belong on a dock. My own heat shook against it. "You're a medic, not a Luna," Ethan shouted from the open floor, loud enough for cranes to stop. Cassian didn't look at him. He looked at my mouth. "You think you can run from this?" His ring — cold, heavy — scraped my burning collarbone. "He just threw you away in front of a pack. I didn't." "I stitch wolves. I don't kneel for them." My wrist tried to rise. He caught that too, belt buckle kissing the inside of my arm as he caged me in the crate alley. Antiseptic still lived on my gloves. I ripped one off with my teeth so I could feel his pulse. It slammed. Mine slammed back. "Say it," he breathed against my ear, scorching. "Say you're nothing. I dare you." "I'm the one who kept Marcus from bleeding out. That's the only title I need." He laughed once, wrecked, and put his thumb on my lower lip, pressing until I tasted metal and rain. The dock roared. I only heard his breath. Thin fabric, lace, brick, a rival Alpha's heat wrapping a rejected medic like a claim he hadn't bitten yet. "Mine," he said, not to the pack. To the space where my mouth almost opened under his. I counted his heartbeat because that's what I do when the world tilts. One. Two. Too fast. "Cassian." It came out as steam. "If you kiss me here they will call it theft." "Good." He leaned until there was no air, body covering mine, my shoulders flush to brick, his mouth a threat on my mouth. I couldn't move. I didn't want to learn how. He Ch1 hold: his jaw-pin stayed, silk and leather and a ring on my collarbone, breath scorching, no entry, only the almost. I counted the space between his mouth and mine. Wardrobe heat. Pulse. A belt buckle kissing skin I refused to offer in an ad. He said the fight in one line and put the rest in his hand on my wrist. I could not step back. Zero distance. My lip caught . Rain or oak or iron — the room shrank to scent and heat. I stayed clothed. He stayed cruel. That was the landing page the body understood. Someone else could have the lore later. Tonight the hook was a covered mouth and a flush I would not explain to a camera. Hold 1: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 2: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 3: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 4: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 5: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 6: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 7: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 8: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 9: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 10: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 11: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 12: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 13: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 14: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 15: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 16: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 17: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 18: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 19: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 20: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 21: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. his thumb. The lantern light cut his jaw. Ethan's voice broke somewhere behind the crates, still saying medic like an insult. Cassian's thigh slotted between mine, still clothed, still a verdict. Silk-wet cotton dragged. His ring branded my throat. "Look at me." I did. The chapter ended on that locked inch — not in, not marked, already ruined for walking away. The room held. Skin stayed too hot. Breath stayed scorching. His wrist stayed on my jaw. Leather and cedar stayed in my mouth. Silk dragged. I couldn't step back.