asked with a smug smile as s

at dress looks surpri

ant and refined-far beyond anything she'd been allowed to wear since her father's remarriage.

groom is quite the savage. Covered in battle wounds, with a face so horrifying, you might faint at

ight not last the week. Not even that

ts, or a prelude to a grim reality? Was this marriage truly her doom?

mall bag containing the pitiful remnants of Elara's belongings.

an awaited her arrival. His golden-blond hair was tousled, and a long s

nan, second to A

Alpha Magnus our regards," Alpha Thorne Wynford said flatly.

e courage to meet Beta Ronan's eye

. He hesitated before answering

ar," he said

r father. His expression remained unrea

ave a small no

arewell, Elara. We'll try to attend your wedding, but you kno

ourse. They had no

dded cheerfully, the malice beneat

y one who appeared the slightest bit conflicted. But even so, Elara wasn't sure if h

Just

. You've always survived. You're intellige

shrouded in mystery. The order for her marriage had come from King Daemon himself-a unio

tended ignorance. But Elara knew she had no

ut above all of them stood King Daemon, the Al

pha lineage, but the Wynfords were not a powerful house.

heir salvation. It wasn't Alice or Chloe she grieved leaving behind-they had made her life miser

say over the phone. The signal was a necessity; the Stormfall border wa

ed the trees blur past as they left Stormfall. Thr

art cl

pleaded. "Please, I

lara jumped out and ran to Tok

ng?" Tilda asked,

k said earnestly. "My dad want

"Don't. I can't let yo

lip. "But... w

Whatever ailment or curse plagued her was still un

don't want to face rejection again. Espe

brace. "Look after Aunt Linda and Uncl

to her from the

s, Elara stepped back into the

at the lands that had been her home. It wasn't perfect

lop Pack territory, she felt the old bond sli

lpha Magnus Rowe's

Its vast lands stretched for miles, guarded by towering pines and mountains in the distan

hed, the first called into every war King Daemon waged. Cold,

Magnus

gend. His victories were many, his enemies countless. His body, they said, bore the marks

eeable, I can just be a ceremonial wife. He can k

ntinels, the manor rising ahead-a four-story red-brick es

A man stood with his back to her, his sleeves rolled up

rd has arrived," Be

ply and closed he

he tu

ick and oppressive.

her eyes-

lo

world st

. Alpha M