's

my lungs. The phantom pain of the dagger, the icy f

s shot

was flat. No swell of pregnan

This wasn't the cold, white medical wing. This was my old room. The small

It was a room I had been desperate to

l. I stumbled out of bed, my legs unsteady, and cross

four ye

mating ceremony w

ive. I w

been r

de of glacial fury. I braced myself against the wall, my body shaking with the

a familiar fear and uncertainty that I no longer felt. I was twenty years old

, then another. Not tears of joy. They were for the woman

hand. My expression hardened. There

oyal servant of my stepmother, Bebe Mcfarland, stomped

casual contempt I had endured my entire life. "Lady He

ad always taken a cruel

of dry bread and a bowl of watery,

d have meekly eaten it,

s quiet, but it held a new weight,

slightly agape, as if I had

her voice rising. "A wolfless Om

of someone who had commanded respect, came back to me instinctively. M

ake this pig slop away. Or would you prefer I present it to

absolute. The idea of a guest, especially Colten Shields, the Alpha of Silvermoon, the very pack I was a

then flushed with ang

the Silvermoon Alpha," she muttered, snatching the t

crossed my vision. I blinked it away, schooling m

ottage on the edge of the pack lands. After discarding her, Cormac Graham had quickly raised Bebe Mcfarland to his side as my stepmother

st possible st

the ultima

years. I knew every plot, every secr

uld start by dismantling the very

tly. It all began with