self I im

the room he had come to see. I tell myself it was nothing, the natural curiosity of a man arriving s

alking myself

the back stairs down to the kitchen, the long way, the way that does not pass th

g that smells like garlic and slow heat. She glances up

expected," I say, becau

on his own schedule, apparently. His coordinator sen

y in his

" She pauses. Something in the pause makes me look at her more carefully. "One of them i

over an hour to finish the east wing, change, and make sure the table settings are correct. My handwriting is in the margin

ests the seat f

rse he

carrying the particular brightness they get when she has infor

about you,

moothing the du

woman on the stairs was. Greaves told him you were the Alpha's personal at

s moving. Corn

d what he shares wi

len

rd you

ou go very still and very effici

making

ed that same cor

duvet and breathe once through my nose, slow and delib

say. "I am staff. He is a guest. That

nt. She does not agree out loud,

not part o

's table. I do not pour wine or carry plates. There are others for that, younger pack members working their rotation through the ho

at being

en, checking the evening log against the supply list from the kitchen,

ook

an I thought, because there are only a few feet between us now and he is looking at me with that

My voice comes out ev

ly, studying me in a way that is not unkind but is v

ist wi

that." The corner of his mouth li

es

specially. That room was cold w

have been to I

o performance in it. "Lucian and I go

close the log and hold it against my chest. "Is there something you

pauses. "I came out becaus

s smaller than it

elp you with that one of

rneath it, something measured. "I have heard things about Ironveil. About certain situations w

re at

thinks he knows, or what any of it has to do with me standing in

s still open, and on the other side of it, at the head o

at V

m

he is feeling is sitting right there on the surface, raw and barely held, a

y first. I

flat against the log