ra

e cold and unforgiving

ne wrong move was all it took. My foot slid out from under me, and the world tilted sideways. The back of my hea

ried to push myself up, but the agony was blinding. I was trapped, naked

d over me, a bitt

when I

main room door. Heavy, purpo

orried, but because a Sterling Alpha did not tolerate a wife who dared to hang up

. Kaelen stood there, silhouetted against the dim

shoulder, the pale damp curve of my throat, the water still tracking down my collarbone. For a single, unguarded heartbeat, his gaze snagged there

any right to be. "Is this the part where you pretend to b

hand. He didn't

lifted me as if I were a sack of grain, an inconvenient object to be moved. His palm splayed hot against the bare skin of my thigh

nter of the large bed. The towel I'd been clutching fell away, exposing the

lew wide, the frozen blue swallowed by a slow-rising ring o

snatched the spare blanket from the foot of the bed and threw it a

you have any idea how much of my night you have wasted? Sera is running a fever of a hundred and three. I

. My house had burned down. His mate had nearly died. And in

y w

down and jerked away again. I let my hand close around the plain manila envelope on

was sweet as poisoned honey. I flung the envelope. It struck him square in the ch

ide. I watched his face, a detached observer at my own execution. I saw th

ndilute

oddamn mind?" he roared, his voice

harp edge of the page grazing my cheek with a fain

mal Rej

ry. I looked him straight i

" I said, my voice quiet

de of my head, and suddenly he was over me, all heat and thunder, close enough that I could see the storm churning in the gold-shot bl

o work. N

rcing my head up. His thumb dragged, almost accidentally, across my lower lip, and I hated the small, traitorous shiver that ran thro

nal, crushing blow that would bring me t

"So that's it, isn't it? The leash

led with a pity that felt

I said, each word a carefully placed ston

through the bond, a warning wrapped in silk. His wolf was so close to the sur

he feral gold of his inner wolf. He misunderstood everything. He saw this not as a

s purr against the shell of my ear. "And then what? You'll cry? Y

ing across the bare skin above my navel, leaving a trail of goosebump

into the small trash can by the desk

egal wife. My Luna, whether the pack likes it or not. And you will remain

om he'd just thrown away like trash. A fire, hotter and more

sitting position. The flimsy blanket slid down. I was exposed, brui

is. I saw his throat

t cut through his anger like a razor. "I'll

e adding, "Or I promise you, you will regret

frozen gaze. His wolf pressed close against the bond, sniffing, unsettled - as though he could feel something in me had genuinely changed and d

on me, a gesture of

ked towards the door. "Show me, little wife. Show me exactly ho