Novels by preshyprincess70

MARISOLI woke up swinging.Not literally, my body wouldn't have cooperated even if my instincts had wanted it to but my hand still shot out and closed around a wrist before my eyes had fully focused, some old reflex refusing to let me wake up defenseless twice in one week."Easy." The voice was low, amused despite itself. "I'm not the one who put those stitches in you."I blinked the room into focus. Unfamiliar ceiling. Unfamiliar smell, herbs, woodsmoke, something clean underneath it that I recognized before I placed it, and recognizing it made my stomach do something complicated.Him. The man from the border."Let go of my wrist," he said, not unkindly, "or don't. I don't actually mind."I let go like his skin had turned to fire."Where am I?""Ashworth pack house. Healer's den." He straightened, giving me space I hadn't asked for and was grateful for anyway. "You've been out most of a day."A day. I sat up too fast, pain lancing through my side, and hissed through my teeth rather

KADERogues didn't cross onto Ashworth land by accident. Not this deep, not this close to the pack house. Which meant whoever had tripped the outer wards tonight was either desperate, stupid, or hunting something — and I intended to find out which before I decided how much mercy the answer deserved."Movement, west ridge," Marcus said, falling into step beside me, already half-shifted, fur rippling along his forearms. "Solo. Moving fast, then not moving at all.""Wounded?""Maybe or waiting."I didn't slow down. Three rogue incursions this month already, two of them bold enough to test our border defenses directly. I'd buried a good tracker two weeks ago because the pack before me had gotten soft about what mercy cost. I wasn't going to be the Alpha who repeated that mistake."If it's a scout," I said, "we don't take chances."Marcus didn't answer. He didn't need to. We both knew what *don't take chances* meant, out here, at night, on contested ground.I smelled her before I saw her a

MARISOL I didn't cry until I was alone in my room, and even then it didn't last long, a few minutes of something hot and furious leaking out of me before I made myself stop, wiped my face, and started packing.There wasn't much I wanted to take. That, more than anything, told me how long I'd already been half-gone from this place without admitting it.A knife. A second set of boots. The small carved wolf my mother had given me before she died, worn smooth from years of being turned over in my palm on nights I couldn't sleep. I held it a long moment before I put it in the bag, thinking about how little I actually knew about her death beyond the version I'd been handed as a child an accident, a bad winter, nothing anyone had ever encouraged me to ask more questions about.I didn't have room in my chest tonight for that particular grief. I set it aside, the way I'd learned to set aside most things that hurt too much to look at directly, and kept packing.My father found me an hour later

MARISOL The council chamber was full by the time I walked in, fuller than I'd ever seen it, which told me everything about how fast word had traveled and how many people had cleared their schedules to watch.Tobias was there. I hadn't expected that, though I should have. He sat near the front, Elena Voss beside him, her hand resting on his arm with the easy comfort of someone who'd never once had to wonder if she belonged in a room.I made myself walk past them without breaking stride."Marisol." Elder Mabry gestured me toward the center of the floor not a seat at the table, I noticed. The center of the floor, like something to be examined. "Thank you for coming on short notice.""Wasn't given much choice in the timing."A ripple of discomfort went through the room. I didn't care. I was done pretending politeness bought me anything."We're here to review the candidacy for Luna succession," Mabry continued, "in light of recent developments.""You mean in light of my bond release." I s

MARISOLIt was a formal notice, embossed with the council seal, the kind reserved for matters of succession, matters that mattered enough to put in writing instead of trusting to gossip.*Notice of Candidacy Review: Luna Succession, Reyes Pack.*My name was on it. So was Elena's. So was a line item near the bottom I had to read twice before it made sense.*Physical and diplomatic suitability to be assessed per Council Standard 4.2, in light of recent developments regarding candidate M. Reyes's marital status and public standing.*"They're evaluating my suitability," I said. My voice sounded strange to my own ears, too calm for what I was reading. "Three days after the ritual. Before I've even had time to—" I stopped myself. Didn't give Dana the satisfaction of watching me not finish that sentence."I thought you'd want to prepare," Dana said. "Rather than be blindsided in the room.""You thought I'd want to spend the next three days terrified instead of just one afternoon." I set the

MARISOL The bond broke the same way everything else in my life had, quietly, and with someone else deciding it for me."It's not about love, Sol." Tobias wouldn't look at me while he said it, which somehow made it worse than if he had. "It's about what this pack needs right now.""What this pack needs." I kept my voice level. Two years of training myself not to flinch in front of anyone, and it turned out the hardest test wasn't a blade to the throat, it was standing in my own kitchen while my mate explained why I wasn't enough for it. "And what does this pack need, exactly?""A Luna the eastern delegates take seriously." He finally looked up. His jaw was tight, like this cost him something, like I was supposed to feel sorry for how hard it was for him. "You know how they talk about you already. Behind your back. Sometimes not even behind your back.""I've heard how they talk. I didn't realize you were listening so closely.""I'm trying to protect the pack's future.""You're trying t