The Wolf King's Unwanted Mate

ordenmaar open

e sound rolled across the snow-blind courtyard and settled into Ziva

did not move a single muscle sh

ked through these

hem walke

reathing even and her face arranged into something that gave nothing away. Her pack Alpha had told her th

e tribute document without looking up from his other corr

long before that moment. Tha

hin up and looked at Vordenmaar the way it deserved to be

omething that could contain people. Towers disappearing into low clouds. The cold here was different from lowland cold.

nest looking. Then

ughly forty minutes between changes. One visible exit from her current positi

of it and wa

aiting inside

had performed this exact reception before and found it unremarkable. She looked at Zivah the way

the Ossian

es

ssaly. F

up her bag and followed and found she preferred this to false warmt

l swallowe

e back of Zivah's neck feel alert without knowing why. She walked and memorised simultaneously. Left turn after the second archway. Right turn at the stairwell. A

idn't look

things the newer sections didn't. Zivah noted the locked door at the corridor's end before she was shown to her room. Heavy lock. Iron r

re already burning, the logs recently placed, the flames still finding their height. Someone had set a water jug on the

tood in th

enth hour. Permitted areas will

sked the one that mat

is the

st before it arrived. She said, "I'll have someone show you

fade. Then she listened to the s

. Fear she didn't acknowledge had a way of surfacing at the worst possible moment, so she felt it completely.

. Then she fo

hen she decided that surviving Vordenmaar and enduring it were two different things entirely. She

e in the corner. She had spotted the

map in the ho

und something

er. Pulled it out and held

Done carefully. With something sharp and enoug

ord.

he

er back and understood with complete clarity that she was not the first wo