ne

e. No anger, no pain, just a suffocating silence t

rweb-like veins that now crept up my forearms. The necrosis was faster

hadow. She placed a small, heavy sack on the floor-dried meat, a cantee

you?" I asked,

led with a fierce, protective sorrow. "Kaden hasn't asked about you once, Aline. His mother... Rosalind to

y lips. "Let him believe that. H

anning my disappearance. I looked down at the small wicker basket at my feet. Fluffy, the stray kitten I'd rescued months a

ision settling in my chest like a stone. "Du

e of fabric. "Then you should leave with your head held high. D

ke garb I was forced to wear, but a gown of deep, blood-red silk.

iated frame, hiding the bruises and the blackening veins, giving me an illusion of vitality. I had used the last of my str

ate him. I was going to say goodbye

the loose floorboard near the window, ready

eats, expensive perfume, and the musk of hundreds of wolves h

er died i

ence. Hundreds of eyes turned to me. I saw Jared Cross, Kaden's Beta, drop his wine glass. It sha

in my legs. I walked through the parting cro

a Al

the crowd. He was tall, with sandy blonde hair and eyes the color of warm amber

est list I had been forced to memorize years a

ightly-a gesture of respect that nearly made my knees buckle. "B

d, my voice steady despite t

extended a hand. "May I? It would be a

tes, for lovers. But I was leav

y," I w

gentle. As he swept me onto the dance floor, for the first t

aring out like a blooming rose. I even managed a small, genuine

ir in the r

f all the oxygen had been sucked out of the hall. The hair on my ar

I

f a physical blow, vibrating through the tattered remnants of the mate bond

my ribs. Slowly, terrified, I lifted

was

grey eyes were no longer stormy; they were an abyss of black rage. His hands g

olence. He didn't need to speak again. The command rolling off him in

comin