te Coo

, I woke the next morning feeling revived. I selected a tailored velvet riding cl

duty, I took only Nora and walked along the quiet stone colonnades towar

rother had risen through blood and conquest to be elevated to a royal Dukedom, anchoring her natal house with towering authority at the royal

mer-her youngest and most brilliant warrior son-above all her children. After he fell at the frontier, she had drawn a fierce protective man

ed the broken, bitter tears carving through Grandmother's weathered cheeks when poisoned silver ruined my face. Worse, I remembered how, after binding myself to Cooper Ortiz, I ha

the blood and honor of my grandmother's lineage. And right before he fed me that lethal draft, Grandmothe

churning wolf just as we reached the arched iron gates, where Grandmot

racticed curtsy. "I already carried word to the parlor. Hearing of your sud

Pack Healer attended to me, and my wolf's vitality is entirely restored. Fearing Gr

my composed, noble bearing. Sweeping aside the heavy, fur-tri

at upright on a high-backed settee upholstered in deep amethyst velvet and trimmed with silver-fox pelts. She was clad in formal violet brocade, her silver-streaked hair secured by

e iron cast of her features softened ins

rum behind, I crossed the room, dropped to my knees before the settee, and wrapped my arms around

hand stroked down the back of my head, steady and shielding.

oat. "No one distressed me, Grandmother. I only realized how foolish an

r blood runs pure and whole, nothing else in this manor matters. Casimer left you behind as his most cherished treasure; my only wish under this sky is to see you live proud and unb

ther knew well the venom lurking behind royal smiles

ped shoulder. "That is precisely why your granddaughter came to beg an audience t

me Stewardess Martha for the next two days to drill me in the strictest high-court etiquette. The protocols of the royal Citadel ar

unned, burgeoning delight. "Are

my eyes. "I will endure every lesson without complaint. And if I falter... you have my

r head and laughed, tapping my nose with an emerald-rin

accompany the girl back to the Third Household. Instruct her without m

ch," Martha answered, bowing

yal court protocol in the capital; she was the living extension of the Matriarch's iron will. With her presence planted inside my quar

own the Abyssal Moon-Pearl Parure from the southern tides! If my Casimer's daughter is to stand be

ndmother took my hand in a fierce, iron-clad grip, murmuring that so long as the ancient b