Novels by Jennifer Peters

Lucan's POVShe never answered me.I stood at that door for an hour last night, listening to her breathe on the other side, and she never said a single word. Not a lie. Not an excuse. Nothing.Somehow that was worse."Again," I said.Bram picked himself up out of the dirt, spat blood and raised his practice sword. He was the biggest warrior in Blackmoor and the only one stupid enough to spar with me when I was in this kind of mood."With respect, Alpha," he panted, "that's the fourth time you've put me down before breakfast.""Then stop going down."He came at me. I blocked, turned and swept his legs. He hit the ground hard enough to shake the fence."Five," somebody muttered from the railing.I tossed my sword to a squire and walked off the yard before I broke something that wouldn't heal. My head was pounding again. It had been pounding for three days straight, ever since a girl in a borrowed veil said my name at the altar like it belonged to her.The little bird.A lover. It had to

"You wouldn't.""Try me."Lucan said it so simply. No anger, no shouting. Just a fact, like telling me it would rain tomorrow.Pip was still on his knees, rubbing his raw wrists. He looked up at me with wet eyes. "My lady, don't. It's all right. I can take it.""You're a child," I snapped. "You can't take forty lashes. Nobody can.""Then talk," Lucan said.I looked at him. Really looked. At the scar on his temple, the hard set of his mouth, the grey eyes I had loved since I was seventeen. Somewhere inside this cold stranger was the boy who used to skip stones with me on the river and laugh when mine sank. I had to believe that. If I stopped believing it, I'd have nothing left."There's an old woman in Ashfall," I said slowly. "Her name is Odette. She took me in when I had nowhere else to go. She's the closest thing to a mother I have.""The aunt.""Yes. She isn't really my aunt. I only said that because..." I swallowed. "Because I thought you'd let me write to family.""And the messag

Nyra's POVI didn't knock.Lyra's door banged against the wall so hard that a vase rattled on its stand. She was sitting at her dressing table in a silk robe, brushing out her hair, and she didn't even turn around."You're up early," she said to the mirror."Where is he?" I held up the wooden wolf. My hand was shaking so badly the little thing trembled. "What did you do to him?""Lower your voice. The Alpha's rooms are just down the hall.""I don't care.""You should." She set the brush down and finally turned. Without her powder, her face looked sharper. Older. "Close the door, Nyra.""Tell me where my son is."There. I'd said it out loud. Son. The word hung in the air between us, and Lyra smiled like I'd handed her a gift."He's exactly where you left him," she said. "In that damp little cottage with the old woman and her stinking herbs." She picked a thread off her sleeve. "One of my men has been watching it since the day your stepfather agreed to the treaty. The window was open. T

Nyra's POV"If they catch me, they'll skin me alive, my lady."The stable boy couldn't have been older than fourteen. He was all elbows and freckles, and he kept glancing at the stable door like the Alpha himself might walk through it."Nobody is going to catch you, Pip." I pressed the ring into his palm and folded his fingers over it. "This was my mother's. It's real silver. Sell it in the market and you'll have enough to feed your family for a whole winter."He stared at it. "Why me?""Because you're the only one who's smiled at me since I got here." I tried to smile back, but it came out shaky. "And because you know the back roads."It was past midnight. The stables smelled of hay and leather and warm horse, and the only light came from a single lantern I'd turned down so low it barely glowed. My burned hand throbbed under its bandage. I hadn't slept. I couldn't. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Silas riding through the gates of Ashfall."Say it back to me," I whispered.Pip swal

Nyra's POV"Sugar, darling? Or does Ashfall drink its tea bitter?"The Luna Mother of Blackmoor held the silver spoon over my cup and smiled at me like I was a long-lost daughter."Bitter is fine, my lady.""Celine, please. We're family now." She set the spoon down with a soft clink. "Family doesn't stand on ceremony."I had been in Blackmoor less than a day, and I had already been woken at dawn by a maid who wouldn't meet my eyes, dressed in a plain grey gown that wasn't mine, and marched to a sunny little parlour where the woman who'd had me whipped was now pouring me tea.She didn't recognise me. I was almost sure of it. Five years ago I'd been a kitchen girl with flour on my face, and women like Celine Thorne didn't look at kitchen girls. They gave orders about them."You're very quiet," she said."I'm sorry, my lady. Celine.""Don't apologise. Quiet is a virtue." She stirred her own tea slowly, round and round. "My son needs a quiet wife. He has enough noise in his life."My son.

Nyra's POV"I don't know what you're talking about."My voice came out steadier than I felt. Under the veil, my nails were cutting crescents into my palms.Lyra laughed softly, like I'd told a sweet little joke. "Of course you don't." She smoothed a crease from her red sleeve. "Let me make it simple for you, since Ashfall never did teach its girls to read. Keep your mouth shut, stay out of his way, and nobody needs to visit that sad little cottage at the edge of your stepfather's land."My blood went cold. "If you touch him...""Him?" Her eyebrows lifted. "Him who? I thought you didn't know what I was talking about."I said nothing. I'd already said too much."That's what I thought." She leaned in again, and the smell of roses made my stomach turn. "Five years ago, nobody believed you. Do you really think anybody will believe you now?""Lady Lyra."A man's voice cut in from behind us, calm and polite. Lyra straightened at once, her smile snapping back into place."Silas," she said. "I