e Bent

teps toward the table,

ed hilt and ripped the blad

parchment wit

weeping calligraphy

Ben

the Page Pack has taken your parents into protective custod

n to sign the reconciliation pact, o

rt Pag

n washed

irs without wheezing. Martha, who spent her evenings knitting blankets for the homele

rumpling the paper in my fist.

my fist. I had no tactical plan. I had no backup. I was going to the Page estate, and if

and slammed straight into a

ng the dagger to drive it downward, but before my elbow unl

" a voice

was

ked with rain, his glacial eyes burning with dark fury. Behind him

s shins with my bare, bloody feet. "Let me go! T

ey were falling leaves. With a precise twist of his w

mp, and the silver hunting dagger clattered down

s, my tears finally breaking in a violent, burnin

rm, spun me around, and pinned my sp

wallowing the flickering light above. The sheer weight of his presence-t

me," he c

ashes, my teeth bared in

hem everything they want. You will sign their contract with a gun to your father's head, and the moment your

like a bucket o

ve out. I slid down the wall, burying my face in my h

as r

ional Alpha dynasty with private armies and judges on retainer, I ha

e in absolute silenc

ut a matte-black satellite communicator. He tapped

, his cadence shifting into the terrifying authority of a supreme warlord. "Check

ring through wet hair. "Y

e. He didn't answer. He turned and began descendin

d, not looking b

hand, pushed myself off the dirty fl

open door of the SUV. We climbed into the

elt like a blade twisting in my chest. Were they hurtin

ator in his pocket gav

ates on the screen, and his jaw s

" he said

s,

vibrating with lethal intent. "Take the northern mount

htened on the wheel

me back into the seat as it veered ont

ge is forty miles into the private reserves! What

ad, his eyes as

y transferred them to their primary fortified border bunker. It is gu

ed, grabbing his wet wool sl

clutching his coat, his ex

the second my tires hit their outer perimeter," he said, removing my fingers with effortles

own breath, u

g into the dark pines

s entire bod

standing out like cables. A faint, blinding amber fire ignit

le grew so pressurized I

at the road. He wa

to something insi

en as a wolfless human, the sheer static of his mental freq