MasukThe crowd cheered, but none were louder than our excited children.Ivan’s POVIt was good of Claire to invite me to her wedding. I’d thought for a while that I might avoid the whole thing, but now that I was here, that I could be surrounded by the obvious love between the pair, I was glad that I had
Claire’s POVThe day of our wedding, I couldn’t stop looking at myself in the mirror. I was wearing a flowing white dress that Leo and Nova had helped me pick out. My hair was done up in a bun. I barely recognized myself, so put together and done up.“You look like a princess,” Nova said from nearby
Gideon’s POVI kissed Claire with my full heart, then held her close. She giggled, pressed into the safety of my arms.“We can talk about it now,” she said. “Or you could kiss me again. I liked that.”“I want to,” I told her truly. “I don’t want to stop kissing you. But after all this, I want to see
Claire’s POVI was dragged out of the trunk roughly by my arms, then shoved down into the dirt at Daphne’s feet.Quickly, I glanced around, but I didn’t really recognize where I was. A forest, but I had no idea which one. Tents were set up here and there and people I didn’t know milled about. This m
George glanced over, seeing me in the dim interior light.“He loves you,” he said.“He does.”“Do you love him, too?”“Yes,” I said. It came out easier than I thought it would. “Yes, I do,” I said again, to be sure. This time was just as easy.“Good,” George said. “Gideon is a good man, a brave and
Claire’s POVWe had a handful of hours before we needed to leave for the exchange. In that time, George had me fitted for body armor.“They will likely attempt to remove it from you,” he said. “But try to keep it on for as long as you can. I don’t know what kind of torture they will attempt, but thi
His smile softened as he returned to this moment with me. “When she was pregnant, that was the happiest I had ever seen her. She loved you so much. She would read to you, alone in the study. She said she wanted you to know the sound of her voice. I wasn’t sure you could hear her in her stomach, but
Claire’s POV “Are the children safe?” I asked, after answering the call. I was safely in my guest bedroom with the door closed. I shouldn’t be overheard here. Though if something had happened to Leo and Nova, I was ready to run through the house screaming for the armies to amass, if necessary. “Th
Yet my heart told a different story. I already had a few reasons to doubt this marriage. One was the lack of love. Two was the worry that I might be keeping Ivan away from any potential mate that might come along. And now three… Ivan wanted me to be someone else. But, no. He was moving past that
Gideon’s POV Married?! Claire was actually going to marry Ivan? I bit back my anger, only for the good of the children. Inside of me, though, it burned hot as a blue flame, deadly and dangerous. I only needed to point myself in the right direction and I would explode. Right here and right now was







