Kian's that she could hear him pacing through the wall at night, f

id, the first night, staring at the p

N

y n

arms crossed, watching her the way he'd watched her in the study, patient and unreadable. "And if you

t for a man who caught me pois

ded. "It's strategy. A caged wolf bites the first hand that comes near t

s in the doorway, the low steady sound of his voice, the way some traitorous animal part of her had

rooms like a man cataloguing an unexploded threat, but he stopped introducing her to the rest of the h

finding her in the kitchen garden at dawn with a basket

t th

ng at nothing while your mind

think

e still, or abou

she meant to. "You say things like th

till turning the idea over. Whether some morning I'll wake up and the bond will have lost the fight against fifteen years of training." He crouched down across fr

loud. "I came here to end your line. My whole life was built around that one night. I d

I'm asking you to let it sit next to the other th

t how hatr

hed a stray leaf off her sleeve, his fingers grazing her wrist for half a second before he withdrew. "But I don't thi

oing whenever he stood too close, and she hated he

softly. "Anything. I'd rather ha

't tru

, though she noted, with some private frustration, that he didn't seem bothered by the refusal. "I'm only asking you to stay long eno

in the east hallway, a folded letter in his hand and an expression that told

ncil with him to make sure it happens." His gaze flicked to Wren, sharp again, calculating. "Which means you have exactly a handful of days to disappear from this house co

won't just marry her while I

l. I haven't figured out how to protect this pack from the river alliance falling apart at the exact same time." He folded the letter back into his coat, jaw tight. "I suggest you use whatever time you have left before t

hallway with her pulse hammering and no idea, for the first time since she'

en she opened it, Kian stood there in the dim hallway light with a

here," he said. "Ear

Emory t

council business years ago, apparently called back for this specifically." He hesitated, and Wren felt her stomach twist at whatever was coming next. "Emory recognized him t

blood w

he knows

was standing much closer to that fire than either of us realized. And I