His hand was still clamped around my wrist. Warm, solid, and way too tight. I couldn't move. I just froze there, my lips barely an inch from the beer, and suddenly, boom, everything around me went silent. No clinking glasses, no chatter. Just his eyes. Matthew Wayne's dark, unreadable stare, stripping me bare like he wanted to crawl inside my skull and devour every thought I'd ever had.
My blood turned to ice. I knew I should say something, anything, but my tongue wouldn't work. My breath hitched, chest tight, and all I could do was lower my gaze a little, silently begging him to let go. But nope, his grip tightened. Like he was sending some kind of message straight through his fingers.
"Alpha Matthew…?" Chester's voice cut through the tension. He sounded stiff, then quickly straightened up, slapping on a polite smile like that would fix anything. "What a coincidence. Please, join us. We were just—"
