The Alpha acted precisely as Yves had foreseen— his intuition urged him to protect the fingerprints on the book. That's why he refrained from touching it with his bare hands and instead used his shirt.
"Sir—" Vincent startled awake from his bunk bed, alerted by the thumping noise. He rubbed his tired eyes, barely discerning the Alpha wrapping something in his shirt. "Is there a problem?" he whispered, his voice cutting through the frigid air.
"Let's discuss this tomorrow," Clyde decided, closing the case and concealing the book, now wrapped in his shirt, under the pillow.
As he lay down, gazing into emptiness, his hand moved involuntarily to touch his empty eye socket. Furrowing his brow, he contemplated the unexpected and inexplicable 'magical' encounter he had just experienced with Ryley.
It felt as if his lost eye had returned to him, as if he had been reborn without a single injury.
