ead of ceremony. Elena noticed that before she noticed anything else about it, because noticing small, useless things had become the o

, told her to sleep, and didn't ask her a single question un

tempt a basic form he'd demonstrated once, badly enough that she nearly put

what happened

rained wolves panic. They flail. What you did wasn't flailing. It was efficient. E

I got

conds?" Damon shook his head. "I've been Alpha eleven

pack sparring sessions from the edge of a field she wasn't allowed to fight on. It hurt in ways she hadn't expected. No

trike connected. By the end of the third, Damon had stopped holding b

Priya, who finally sa

before deciding what to say to them. She found Elena in the training hall one evening, running

the mark,"

d mid-motion

riya tilted her head, studying her the way you'd study something you'd read about but neve

now what t

eryone. It was obscure only to her. "The Ashwoods were the bloodline the old packs measured strength against, before they mostl

the mat, the drill forgott

or t

nt, and had never once explained why, only that it was safer to start over somewhere nobody asked questions. Ele

red to her it might be

-

s study that night, n

aid. "You knew before Priya

way he did everything. "I suspected. I didn't know for certa

t you just

across from him. She didn't sit. "The Ashwoods weren't just strong, Elena. They were the reason the old pack wars ended the way the

mina

out what you are before Kane Voss rejected you - and given they had a bounty on you within days of that rejection - I'd guess that's exactly why he did it

r the eleven minutes, the phone-check, Renner's zoning-meeting voi

make it forgiv

ch she hadn't expected from him. "I said it might make it make sense. Those

for that yet. She wasn't s

instead. "Not the basics. All

ould be

where else I

ming nod he'd given her the day she arrived at his gate covered in so

rrow," he said. "Pr

d with the shape of where she'd been sitting when her whole understanding of h

couldn't see from here, a pack was still standing on la

ed that the way she noticed everythin

ce the clearing, later did