s full of fabric the color of dried blood, and

en her lips like she'd done this a hundred times for a hundred different girls standing in this

nst w

itical eye, made another adjustment. "You're the newest weakness in his ar

ders, the kind of garment that felt like armor even though it left my arms bare and my throat exposed. I looked at myself in the mirror I'd been avoiding for

in the glass, "keep your face still. Don't let them see anything. Not fear, not ang

if I

and for a moment her expression softened into something almost gentle. "I know this isn't fair. None

long table already half-filled with faces I didn't recognize and didn't trust on instinct alone. Kane stood at the head of it, dressed in black that m

ne arrived

ne, silver at his temples, a face that had clearly once been handsome and had hardened instead into something sharper, calculating, permanently amused by a joke no one else was in on. Beside

to raise itself at all, the kind of voice b

level, controlled, an Alpha's voice with no ro

smile, something colder underneath it. "How ge

elf rise up hot and immediate, and forced it back down th

he ice in her eyes wasn't just a trick of the dress's color. "Wren." My name came out testing its own weight in her mouth, deci

ve

toward Kane and back, quick, precise, a blade testing

knew. Or suspected. Or was fishing with en

my voice as flat as I could manage, "but I only

ng in six years. Today he was forty minutes late, and Nadia Vane spent the entire morning in

jaw flex, the only sign that

ed and was simply enjoying the walk there. "Kane." His voice cut through the tension like it cost

iet, the same register he'd used on Silas. "The debt was collected

as turning it over, testing its texture, decidi

hat everyone at this table was waiting to see who would break it first. My hands stayed folded in front of me, still, the way Nadia had dril

alm of a man who'd already won whatever game was being played, and l

ich somehow made it worse. "Tell me. When Kane Ashbourne w

felt Briar's stillness sharpen into something predatory, and understood that wh