lyn

embroidered silk against

courtyard. I was sitting on a wooden pew in th

white dress I'd been forced into befor

ies crash

s blood-red eyes and his final, w

n't a

Hard. A sharp, stinging pain bloomed un

ernoon of the union ceremon

l door cr

sk of sisterly concern. "Adalyn, are you

ous face and saw her sneering at me from below the wall

of nerves. I had cried, and Jasmine had "comforted" me, he

I just wa

f the warmth and fear she expected. The

shifted on her feet, a flicker of unea

w inches taller than her, a fact I had

gently brushed a stray golden hair from her shoulder. The gestu

cut through the chapel's silence. "I j

nding to be my sister while stabbing me in the back. Like how you think being pretty and cruel makes you clever." I pau

oluntary step back, her feigned concern replaced by ge

ed my lips. It was a new

ice rising to a familiar, shrill pitch. "What are

marrying Beckham. You can have him-though I suspect you already have, in every way that matters

yes darted to the chapel door, as if calculating an escape route, then

me make myself perfectly clear. I'm not going to be your s

e one who can barely walk without limping? You really have lost your mind!" Her eyes raked over me with pure contempt. "You

nblinking stare of a predator studying its prey. The longer I stayed sile

smile. It was the kind of smile th

onfident you felt standing here, calling my future mate a cripple. Remember it clearly." I stepped closer, my voice dropping to a whis

, leaving her sputtering in my wake. Her mouth opened and closed, a fish

had bee

I was holding

e trust fund Martha had been embezzling for years

Beckham and watch him and Jasmine dro

ilent Alpha who had died for me. The mate I had been t

Jasmine fled the chapel. She would run to her mother,

light wash over me. I closed my eyes, savoring the feeling of a

ed to him in my mind

trust my mother had left me, details I had ignored in my f

y chapel doors and ste

as clear. My ste