Novels by Elizabeth Crown

CHAPTER SEVENTEENSALVATOREEffortlessly, I rip off the bastard’s head.Blood splashes all over me, and my wolf howls within me. My whole body is pounding with rage. Heat burns through my spine, and I growl in rage, slamming feet through the other’s torso. I am covered in blood in seconds.The fourth fucker cowers on the ground, his whole body trembling.“Please … please … Alpha, please.” He whispers, crying.My nose flares as the stench of him fills my nose. Rogue wolves are fucking disgusting, and for the second time, they’ve attacked what is mine.I grab the dagger on the table, intent on slitting his throat, but I stop when I catch a glimpse of Caroline on the ground.Fear slithers through my being. It’s a foreign emotion, one I don’t know how to handle.Slade steps forward and takes the dagger from me.I walk to Caroline and listen. Oddly enough, I check her heartbeat first, before listening for the baby’s. I’m not surprised to hear both loud and pounding. She has a bruise on her

CHAPTER SIXTEENCAROLINEHe has gone insane. No one speaks to me like that. No one. I don't care who they are. I am not a punching bag for his obvious anger issues. I am only here because of the creeps that showed up at my work.Goosebumps break down my skin as I walk down the streets.The sun has set hours ago, and the moon rests between clouds, but the streets of New York are still lively. There seems to be another festival. There's always one thing or the other. I don't think I can live here. I'd rather live in a city that sleeps. London has a certain lull around it that I love. New York, on the other hand, is chaotic. I don't like chaos. Chaos led me to R …I shake my head. I will not think about them, not now, not when everything has changed.Still for a moment, I can't help but wonder if they're still in New York. Do they even think about me? Do I matter? Am I so easily forgotten?Someone bumps into me, and I jerk backwards.“Sorry,” he murmurs and walks off.I need to get off

CHAPTER FIFTEENSALVATORE“Unfortunately, Caroline, there are some things you are better off not knowing. You’re new here, so be new. Do not poke your nose in my business, and enjoy New York.” I snap at her.I do not like being pushed against the wall, definitely not by a human I’m burdened with. I have lived long enough, yet she drives me up the wall every time.Her eyes flash, and darken, “Are you insane?”I clench my jaw hard.“Have you gone mad, Salvatore? Should I not poke my nose in your business? You must be insane. Your baby is growing in my belly, and my body is changing. My body. Your baby. Do not piss me off more than I already am right now. You either tell me what I want to know or I will find answers myself.” She threatens, nose flaring, cheeks flushed.I lean against my desk, bored out of my mind.“I don’t care what you do. As long as it ends with you out of my sight, then be my guest.” I shrug.She’s a volcanic eruption. A mamma bear I shouldn’t poke, but I have less fuc

CHAPTER FOURTEENCAROLINEIt starts with the conversation I shouldn't have been able to hear.I am in the kitchen, making tea, when I hear Slade's voice. Clearly. Every word, every pause, the specific texture of his low, unhurried tone. He is telling someone about a perimeter rotation, something about the east corridor, something about timing. I can hear him as though he is standing next to me.He is two rooms away, behind two closed doors.I set the kettle down.I stand very still and listen, not because I mean to, but because I can't not.Goosebumps break over my skin.Every word arrives with the same clarity as

CHAPTER THIRTEENSALVATOREThe rogues are kept on a lower level.Most people don't know the lower level exists. That is by design. The compound above it is warm, structured, alive with the organised noise of a functioning pack. The lower level is none of those things. It is concrete and cold and very quiet, and the quiet is the point. Men talk faster in quiet rooms. They fill the silence with whatever they have, and I have learned, over a very long time, to simply wait.I take my jacket off before I go in. I fold it over the railing at the bottom of the stairs with the same care I give it anywhere else. Slade hands me the file. I read it in the corridor, unhurried, while the two men behind the door sit with the knowledge that I am outside it.

CHAPTER TWELVECAROLINE – POINT OF VIEWIt takes a while for me to fall asleep.I’m not used to being here. I have lived alone for half my life. I don’t know how to get used to this new part of my life so easily. It will take time, but I am not sure I have the time.I kept my bedroom door locked all through the night, and I kept waking up at intervals, unable to sleep through the night. Calla left hours ago, and I don’t know if she’s still in the house, because I decided to stay in.I could feel Salvatore's presence. His broody and overbearing presence. Even through the walls, even through the thick, foreign quiet of this house, I could feel him. I don't know why he unsettles me the way he does. I don't know why I am so aware of exactly where he is in a house I have barely learned the layout of. I chalk it up to stress and pregnancy and the fact that my entire life has been upended in the space of a few weeks, and I lie there in the dark with my hand on my stomach and wait for morni