LOGINThe double oak doors slammed shut behind Daphne, leaving the grand hall in dead, suffocating silence.The heavy iron sconces flickered against the cold stone walls, casting long, jagged shadows over eighty war captains, three pack elders, and the weeping male curled on the flagstones at my feet.Every single eyes in the room was fixed on me. They were waiting to see what the Alpha of the Northern Pack would do now that his whole house had been proven a lie.My chest heaved under my heavy leather breastplate. My inner wolf was clawing at my ribs, howling in total agony over the female who had just walked away from me, but the rage in my blood was turning into something cold, sharp, and lethal.I looked down at Soren.The male who had sat at my council table for three years. The male who had eaten my meat, taken my coin, and shared my fires. The male who had taken Isolde’s southern night-shade ink, forged my female's handwriting, and turned my own paranoid jealousy into a weapon against
MALKAIThe tension in the grand hall was thick enough to choke on.Eighty war captains, three pack elders, and dozens of high-ranking northern males lined the long oak tables, their hands resting heavy on the pommels of their broadswords. At the head of the room, Elder Garrok sat like a stone vulture, his weathered hand resting on his wooden gavel, his dark eyes fixed on the empty iron chair where Daphne was supposed to be standing."You are stalling, Alpha," Garrok rasped, his gravelly voice cutting through the low murmur of the hall. "The sun is dipping below the western peaks. The ledger has your female’s seal. The handwriting belongs to her desk. By northern law, a traitor must answer to the council before dusk.""Hold your tongue, Garrok," I growled, my voice dropping into an unhinged, dangerous bass that made the nearest warriors flinch.My broad chest heaved under my heavy leather armor. My inner beast was clawing violently at my ribs, tearing through my veins with a sickening,
DAPHNEThe sound of Malakai’s heavy feets faded down the winding stone staircase, leaving the tower landing in dead silence.I didn't waste a single second standing around in the dark.I set the leather ledger flat on the wooden vanity table, grabbed the small brass hairpin tucked behind my ear, and walked straight over to the locked oak door.My inner wolf paced beneath my skin, her sharp fangs bared, ready to fight. I pressed my ear against the cold wood and listened hard. The four guards Malakai had posted on the landing were breathing heavy, their armor clanking softly every time they shifted their weight from one foot to the other."She told the Alpha about the ink," one guard whispered, his voice low and scratchy. "If she's right about Soren, Garrok is going to lose his mind.""Keep your mouth shut and watch the stairs," the second guard barked. "Alpha said no one comes up, and no one goes down."I ignored them and focused on the keyhole in front of my face.The lock was reinfor
DAPHNEThe draft off the high glass window was freezing, but I didn't care.I sat right on the fur rug on the floor, the dark leather ledger spread open across my knees.Malakai had left it on the small side table when his guards dragged me up the stairs. He wanted me to stare at my handwriting. He wanted me to feel the weight of his paranoia breaking my back.Instead, I used it.I dragged the heavy bronze candelabra off the vanity and struck a match against the stone floor. The three wax candles flickered to life, throwing a warm light over the pages."You think you're clever, don't you?" I whispered into the quiet room.My fingers traced the dark, heavy strokes of the cipher.To anyone else in this keep—to the war captains, the elders, or a male completely blinded by possessive rage—it looked like an ironclad death sentence. The handwriting was a match. The looping curves, the slant of the letters, the silver wax seal in the corner.It looked just like my work.But it wasn't.Heavy
DAPHNE The heavy iron deadbolt slammed into place with a loud, hollow thud that echoed straight down the stone staircase.I didn't turn my head away from the arched glass window.I stayed completely still on the wide stone bench, my knees pulled tight against my chest, my arms locked around my legs while the dark crimson velvet of my dress pooled around my boots.Outside, the sun was dropping fast behind the jagged white peaks of the northern mountain range, painting the snowfields in bruised shades of purple and grey.The silence inside the high tower room settled heavy and thick, broken only by the quiet crackle of cedar logs burning inside the stone hearth.It was a beautiful room.It had a soft feather mattress draped in dark furs, a polished oak vanity, and a roaring fire designed to keep the freezing mountain drafts from touching my skin.It was a gilded cage, built by a male who was too cowardly to execute me and too arrogant to admit his own paranoia had blinded him.Heavy, i
DaphneThe heavy iron gauntlets of the northern guards clamped over my upper arms, their thumbs digging hard into my skin through the velvet of my sleeves.The grand hall was an absolute war zone of noise. Elders shouted for my blood, war captains slammed their broadswords against wooden shields, and Soren knelt in the center of the flagstones, pretending to weep for his lost honorNone of it mattered. Thedeafening roar of the council faded into a dull, meaningless hum in my ears.My eyes were locked onto Malakai.He stood towering behind the shattered oak table, his broad chest heaving under his heavy leather armor, his red wolf eyes burning through the space between us like two dying coals. He looked at me like I was a monster. He looked at me like I was nothing more than a treacherous, lying parasite who had crawled into his keep to bleed him dry.For ten seconds, the cold terror that had gripped my spine vanished completely, replaced by a searing, white-hot wall of pure, unadulte







