Intro. I'm an Alpha marked by fate, hopelessly in love with the one woman who seems to have forgotten me. Our paths crossed in childhood and, since then, I have become her shadow; I take care of her every step in absolute silence. Now, fate has brought us face to face in college, and proximity is a torment. My soul screams for recognition of hers, but the final blow comes in the form of a whisper: she asks me not to touch her. She is human, alien to my nature and to the unbreakable bond that unites us. I am a stranger to whom it is everything to me. But what she doesn't know—and what I can never tell—is that my world is a place of dangers she shouldn't know. Every inch of distance she imposes, even though it tears through my chest, is what keeps her safe. I am doomed to love her in secret, caught between the desire to claim her and the sacred duty to protect her from myself and all that I am.