e Bent

ten suffocating seconds before it rece

ntal transmissions during coordinated SWAT raids, but this was entirely differen

pered, my voice shaking

gone, replaced by a dark, calculatin

ping an octave. "Hilbert hasn't harmed them yet.

g about? He wants the commercial transit

lpha like Hilbert-a man who controls the western shipping ports-w

over. "We have nothing! My family has four thousand dollars in checking an

s you, C

e sent a violent shiver down my spin

beast. I can't shift. I can't pass on an Alpha gene. To

ights, casting me entirely in his shadow. The scent of frozen ce

triking like an iron mallet. "You are the sol

n the pressurize

just a name. My biological parents abandoned me on a church

Benton royal territory was fractured by civil war, your father sent you into the human wards to keep you breathing. Th

d wildly against

the sole surviving daughter of the Benton bloodline grants his family legal claim to over ten thousand square miles of ancestral nort

vacuated

it six months ago, Beaulah's false smiles, the rushed engage

me. They had been

t as a broken rasp. "Now th

and they will use them to force you into a blood contract before the regional councils disco

e like an avalanche. I wasn't just a discarded fiancée; I

p into his glacial eyes. "Why do you

dn't

ed through towering, ancient evergreens. Ahead, illuminated by blinding halogen floodlights, st

assault rifles. The moment our vehicle approached, they snapped to attention, their fists cross

age's thugs. These were elite pack warriors-h

ung open wit

tree-lined avenue for two miles until the for

of dark stone and reinforced steel. It looked like an ancient f

egendary seat of power

beneath the grand portico. Burdell

as the mountain wind whipped his dark wool coat, his presence do

icle, looking down at me

este," he com

the driveway, the contrast between my ripped gown and t

l uniforms stepped out of the heavy

it to Burdell without breaking stride

rdered, his tone brisk and clinical. "Clean the woun

head maid answered

sweeping staircase in the f

voice bouncing off

slightly to look down at me over his broad sho

emanded, gripping the banister. "You said

me for three ago

m ready,"

into the shadows of the upper corridor, leavin