understood what Ironvei

kill

ay the curse had b

and more delibe

efore to people they wanted gone with

going to

ted wit

a list written in small tight handwritin

fireplace before the morning me

en I looked at her. "The

t. Final. "Until he does, you are a guest of undetermined stat

efore I co

ng the list and understood t

l, she was efficient, an

hority than a head of househo

d, I would lose th

ket, a scrubbing brush and

nd cold and designed to make

the stone floor around the f

akf

of t

th the organized hierarchy of a pack that r

Every singl

ed bride", on her hands and

e of them

alked around me the way yo

the Alpha's seat, but as close to it as she could positio

d into a

t kept her gaze at

lence

thing in

een, gangly and uncertain

ed when h

through his fa

on of someone watching something that didn't

alke

bed the

r's pack had decided early on that a daughter with no wolf gifts a

ake my face into nothin

astered, what nineteen years had not fully taught me was how to be inv

the far end

e window with a cup he hadn'

that catalogued everythi

did not linger - just a swe

saw so

ly. Just fo

brace myself

e was closed again and I wen

st by midday. Eve

consequences. Because I re

satisfaction of

ed to use me

it with my spine straight and my face calm, and I would not cry, and I wo

sh to the supply room at the

ling of soap and pine, and I

e it with the

the wall and breathe and feel the weig

seconds in, t

hall stood in the doorway ho

f hard

urgency of someone completing

n't eat,

up close. Too young for the

all in everyon

brown and hone

t fully thought through what

o

the stables. I'm nobody. So

ng to

within me instantaneously. Not warmth e

ing something you had a

k the

ou, Pip,

, and paced away with the

and needed to immedia

n the darkness of

thing anyone had do

the most deva