Vanc

he cold, empty bed, the ghost of that wild ginger scent haunting my ev

nd was frantic, her anxiety a sharp, clawing thi

. Slipping from the bed, I pulled on a dark robe, becoming a shadow in my own home. My de

my father surfaced, a flash of warmth in the encroaching cold. There was an old ventilation shaft in t

it was, a brass grille, cool to the touch. I knelt, pressing my ear a

Ryker's breathing. Disappointment warred with a sliver of desperate h

ft and sultry, but the duct amplified it, d

onger do you have

stopped. The woman-*that wom

se with me. "Be patient. Everything is proceeding as planned. Gl

tness. "I just can't wait to be your Lun

w, breathy moan from the woman. My stomach

not once, shown me. Every gasp, every throaty sigh from the woman, was a physical blow. The sounds

o intense they stole my breath. My unborn child thrashed in my womb, reacting to my agony. I bit dow

tard?" the woman asked, he

n. "An 'accident' will take care of all our problems. The

ched my belly with such reverence, calling this child the symbol of our fated love. All of

powerful that my bones ached with the urge to shift,

th!* Lyra shrieked, her

If I burst in there now, I would be signing my own death warrant, and my child'

erasing any sign of my presence. I fled, a ghost in my own hom

time. There was no point. Th

gave way to a bleak, grey dawn. The shock had burned away the tears, le

ca

me to the bone, that a marked she-wolf, ca