hina'

y mind, but it was followed by the cold, quiet d

s time it was the polished stone

ashba

e council. I remember Kieran standing beside me, his face pale, h

ounted what she had seen. Her pain was so raw, so genuine

rds came out jumbled, incoherent. I couldn't even name the herb then, couldn't articulate the feeling of

ha of another, powerful pack. They could not judge him, could not punish him. So, they directed a

of desecrating a sacred bond and betr

that followed, the feel

ry out the sentence, a routine m

the stunned council that I was pregnant

that detonated in

rs, no she-wolf carrying the bloodline of an Alpha could be harmed.

a single night, made his decision. I was to be ba

llow it. An heir to their Alpha could not be born

For two days, the fate of my u

meful compromi

e, giving me and his child the protection of his name. It was not

hild, but would forever serve as a pub

no passion, no love, no hint of the ecstasy a true mating was supposed to bring. Only cold, clinical duty and a wave of revu

ent, not as a bridge between two

Flash

the faint, silvery scar that was always hidden by my hair.

We were not mates. We were cellmates, sha

e. Our life together was a gilded cage, our marriage a ten-year-long silent

as not naive. I knew that for Kieran, his fatherly affe

lie, built on a f

as all a lie. We were all v

just for me anymore. It was for Kieran, trapped in a loveless bond. It was for Celeste, robb

o did this. And I w

essed. I reached for the wall, my muscles screaming in protest,

g man. I was here to interrogate the la