wasn't a cell. That wa

d a cold hearth along the other, and Kian shut the door behind them with

" he

l st

rossed, studying her the way she imagined he studied a map before a border dispute, lo

re

t Wr

name that mat

there and gone too fast to read. "A

aid n

se," Kian said. "Not clumsy. Deliberate. Someone taught you to do that, and taught you w

o had good

r, testing its weight. "Go on, then. Give me the reason.

her succeed and vanish into the night, or fail and die trying. Nobody had trained her for this, for an Alpha who caug

kwood pack to the ground. Every den. Every den mother and every pup too young to run. I was seven years old. I watched my house catch f

ly. Whatever he'd expected

ldn't hear the screaming anymore, and then I kept running, because that's

stretched thin enough to

areful, like a man walking onto ice he wasn't sure would hold. "

hy I was training." Wren's hands had curled into fists at her sides without her permission. "So yes, my lord Kian, someone taught me to hold a cup li

to come roaring back, expected him to shift on the spot and finish

and something crossed his face

ed. Started again. "There was a border skirmish that year. Duskwood territory sat between us and the river packs during a bad season, and there were raids, accusations flying in every direction.

d my fami

he fact that you lost everything you had. What I doubt, now that I'm standing here looking at the daughter of it, is whether my father actually gave that order, or w

t's a very convenient th

f he took blame that wasn't his to take, then whoever actually gave that order is still out there, and they let an entire pack believe a lie for fifteen years while the real architect walked free." He shook his

t you believe? I still

But there's a problem with that plan now, one you already noticed

heart s

," she

elt it

id do

efore tonight. I didn't believe half the old stories about how it hits you, the way the old wolves talk about it like a physical blow. I believed it about as much as I believed in ghost stories." His

fifteen years in the making, sat bal

hange anythin

not what

killed my family. I was raised on nothing but the shape of you

nything," Kian said quietly

ary noise of a pack that had no idea their Alpha was locked in a room with the girl who'd tried to end him an ho

and hated herself

d been holding that b

use the moment they find out, they will kill you before I can finish a sentence in your defense, mate bond or not. You're going to stay here. Under my roof, where I can protect you, until I u

usly suggesting I

isn't a version of tonight where I let you walk out that

oved open without so much as a knock, and his Beta stepped through with a look on his

lpha to land, hard and suspicious, on Wren. "There's a p