yra sobbed, curling tighter around

rcus turned on me before I h

g now, and I hated that they were, hated that fear h

that made my chest ache, then rose and came back to stand directly

said instead, "just to make her

voice cracking on the words. "Do you scent any wo

een them and carried her toward the healer's chambers. I followed, because whatever I had or hadn't

ssed protectively over her stomach. I braced myself for the question I was certain Mar

dn't

baby," he said, voice low and

say those words to me without once turning t

fully. "She wanted to hurt our baby. The next Alpha." A pause, ti

oom like a stone dropped

by that door, but he said nothing. He didn't even flinch. He let the title sit there in the air between us, uncla

before I could

rly buckled my knees, because Nessa had been in the garden, Nessa kne

e just past my shoulder, refusing to meet mine. "

dn't come. Her hands were folded tightly in front of her, knuckles pale, and I understood in that instant that someone had gotten to her first, that whatever threat had been made agains

my eyes. "There's a witness," he

s somehow worse than any anger could have been. "Spare her,

cream. She wanted me chained to her service, cooking her meals and tending her while she carried the child th

" I

m turned to

y my father's voice went steady right before he ended a negotiation for good.

then two guards were moving to take hold of my arms, and I let them, bec

unwillingness to be seen dragging a King's daughter through the front gates without proof. I didn't wait to find

the courtyard two nights ago, ugly and full-bodied, three years of swallowed pride breaking loose all at onc

ciousness, the one connecting me to my brother, the one I hadn't reached for since

e raw and cracking even inside m

ind of silence that meant he hadn't expected

me rushing back,

Where a