ena

om behind my fat

traight, my chin high. Everyone ex

y voice, and it wa

he Alpha Ki

one person already tied to tonight's scandal. Prince Dante Carlisle. The man I had been acc

Celena, what are you saying? You can't be serious! That princ

to hear Dante's name and break apart all over again, as if being handed to the very man from that

im to trust me. Then I turned back to the royal chamberlain. "Ho

hot up. "The King's decree i

very prince dragged into tonight's accusation. Before the union is

ess. He couldn't a

e while the court decided what his presence in that room meant for me. Before I am bound to the other half of this accusation, I want to

to Arlin. He had tried to make Dante's name a stain on mine.

, and the hand at his side flexed once before goi

ides, the knuckles turning white. The decree had been meant to humiliate me.

n gave a stiff nod. "Your request is reason

ned to leave, not giving a

the air. "Prince Dante isn't just wolfless, he's a cripple. They say

her, a slow, mysterious smi

g of early graves, Jaylin. In royal families, the sick younger son is not always the one who

all, crowns do not only attrac

en around him as the meaning landed. Beside him, Ja

ents. "Father, Mot

"Celena," she whispered, her voice breaking, "he was i

ly. "That is exactly

ed with every breath, and my legs were unsteady beneath the ruined silk of

r toward the prince's estate, the calm f

. To refuse would have meant war between my fat

rd to be pass

sed to destroy mine, and the man the King had now turned into my husband. That made him

king control of my own destiny. I needed to know who this

ving long before