CASSIAN
I stood in the doorway for a long beat, my hand still resting on the cool brass of the handle. My mind was a battlefield of corporate strategy and my father's icy warnings, but the second my eyes landed on the bed, the noise of the Wolfe family legacy simply… stopped.
He looked soft. He looked like he hadn't moved since the breakfast I'd left him.
Then, his eyes flicked toward the door.
The reaction was instantaneous. His entire body jerked with a violent, full-body startle. A sound escaped him, not a scream, but a high-pitched, undignified squeak that sounded like a rubber duck being stepped on.
Because he was so tightly cocooned in the charcoal duvet, his arms were trapped, flailing uselessly against the fabric as he lurched sideways.
He lost his balance entirely, sliding toward the edge of the bed.
"Ahh—!"
He barely caught himself, one hand shooting out to grip the edge of the mattress as he dangled precariously half-off the bed.
