en's

g fast, sweat dripping down my body. My th

rain slowly remembered the family curtains, the fam

ightmare.

ght I'd grown used to it but it never left

, and her voice. Her

her hand reaching for me as m

she tried to use it as lever

flames and the guards restraining me,

rp and cruel, echoing over

ace, pressing my palms against my ey

an hour. One hour and the n

since she was taken from me. Ten years since I

y legs to the floor. My body ached, h

e I slept through an entire night wi

only days away and that

he bedside and drank it slowly, it did

rse it was.. even the palace m

elp. I was restless, my wolf stirred un

esponsibility. Something to g

s of the packhouse were quiet and empty but I found Alaric, my beta in th

he said, his face e

'd slept, he alrea

, moving to the table. "How are the

dered," he said. He pushed a sheet toward me. "But there

, sightings, tracks. Nothing

" I said. "Tell the warriors to s

tes? The merchants are restless,

the larger goods, at least

s, supply lines.... The usual responsibilities of running a pack. It shou

trategy I set, it all came bac

her scream and his fa

y I clenched my jaw. He leaned

oser, isn't it?"

my hands flat on the table, staring down at the

ut lower than I intended. "I can feel

g this alone, it's been

what happened," I snapped

through it all. He was the only one who co

id. "You couldn't have stopped it, non

I muttered. "And he l

d. "He's gone. Exiled. He'l

rds inside me and ease my mind but doubt had a way

straightened, forc

n some of the activities so he knows how a pack runs. And also continue t

mmand," Al

though the conversation sat heavy between us. Alaric walke

but something on the f

ett

up. The envelope was folded ne

ra

ling the weight of it, the silen

the seal and unfo

p and deliberate, overal

words then my breath

, and he's