LOGINKATHLEEN"That's a lie!" The words ripped out of me before I could stop them, disbelief crashing headlong into fury.She's setting me up. Right here, right now, in front of the one man who could end my life over a single mistake. She said it with a completely straight face, like she hadn't handed me that tray herself and spoken the King's name out loud while doing it.Did she plan this from the start? Was I set up to fail before I even walked through that door this morning?I stepped forward instinctively, fury overriding whatever caution I had left. "You—""One more word out of you," Beta Fin snapped, rounding on me with a sharp glare, "and I'll rip your tongue out myself."I stumbled back immediately, swallowing down every furious word still clawing its way up my throat. That didn't stop me from shooting her a look of pure disbelief."Do you understand what you just did could get you killed?" Beta Fin barked, turning his fury on me instead. "Bread? For a king?" His fist clenched at
KATHLEENI woke to find two girls standing at the foot of my bed. They looked identical, save for hair color — one black, one blonde. Twins, maybe.Neither looked particularly happy to be there.I hadn't slept well. Nightmares had chased me through what little rest I'd managed, the kind I hadn't felt in years.I rubbed the back of my head, confused. "Can I help you?""It's time for your morning duties," the black-haired one said coldly, scowling like I'd personally wronged her just by existing.I nodded slowly, still trying to shake the fog of sleep from my head.The blonde one continued, matching her scowl exactly. "You're expected to clean the King's chamber. Change his sheets. Bathe him.""Wait." My gaze snapped to her. "Bathe him?""Yes," the other cut in, sharp with irritation.I swallowed hard. "Shouldn't that be a servant's job? Not—" I gestured vaguely at myself. "Not mine?"The black-haired girl scoffed. "Sharp tongue on her, isn't there?"I pushed myself out of bed. "That's
KATHLEEN"Please!" I cried. "Let me go."He tore a piece of fabric from the neckline of my dress and lifted it to his face, inhaling deeply, over and over.He released me and stepped back, still sniffing the torn scrap, and with every breath he took, his rage seemed to climb higher instead of settling. He turned from me entirely and began tearing the room apart — furniture, glass, anything within reach."Leave!" he roared over his shoulder, the piece of dress still clenched in his fist.I didn't need telling twice. One look at his eyes told me that another second wasted in that room would be the last mistake I ever made.I scrambled up off the floor and bolted for the door without a backward glance, wrenching it shut behind me the moment I cleared it.The guards outside stared at me like they were looking at a ghost, disbelief written plainly across both their faces. Honestly, I could hardly believe it myself — that I'd walked out of that room breathing, in one piece, when fourteen
KATHLEEN The door creaked. I swallowed hard and stepped through, my trembling hands pulling it shut behind me. I lifted my gaze to the thing standing in front of me, and my soul left my body on the spot. He was massive — inhumanly tall, fur matted with blood, claws long enough to gut me in a single swipe. Smoke curled from his nostrils with every ragged breath. His eyes, when they found mine, held nothing human left in them at all. Just hunger. Just rage. He roared the second he saw me, the sound shaking something loose in my chest. He wasn't in his human form. Whatever curse Casper had cast on him hadn't just broken his mind — it had broken his shape, twisted him between man and monster that answered to neither name anymore. Every instinct screamed at me to run. I stayed rooted to the floor instead. I can't show him fear. If I run, I die. If I flinch, I die. I have to be braver than I've ever been in my life, right now, in this room. I needed him to eat. Somehow. Some wa
KATHLEEN I swallowed hard and lifted my gaze to meet his. "I don't want to be here. I want to leave." The words came out louder than I meant them to, edged with panic I could no longer hide. He let out a long breath, his shoulders sagging slightly. "Even if you'd gotten through that door, you wouldn't have lived to take two steps past it." "Why?" My voice dropped to barely a whisper. "Because warriors are stationed just outside, specifically to kill any slave who tries to run." He said it plainly. The word ‘Slave’ made my blood run cold. He just saved my life, whether he meant to or not. "I don't want to be anyone's slave or surrogate," I said, shaking my head, my stomach turning at the thought of carrying a child born out of nothing but obligation and fear. "I just want to go home." He offered a faint smile, one that never came close to reaching his eyes, and began pacing slowly in front of me. "Do you know why our King needs a surrogate in the first place?" I sh
KATHLEEN Beta Fin crouched down to my level, gripping my jaw and tilting it up as he leaned in and sniffed at my scent. "Weak. Powerless." His voice was flat, almost bored. "Exactly what that Mad King wants." He shoved my jaw aside, rough and dismissive. I burst into tears as the full weight of what I'd walked into finally landed. Beta Fin rose to his feet, eyes sweeping the hall. "Seize every unmated wolf. And every omega in this pack." His voice thundered through the silence. I turned toward Troy and tried to push myself up. The warrior behind me kicked me hard across the back of the knee, and I dropped again, a cry tearing out of me before I could stop it. I lifted my gaze to him, eyes burning, blurred with tears and fury. "What did I ever do to deserve this, Troy?" He smirked, cold and unbothered, looking at me like a piece of trash. "Your only mistake was loving me." "Over my dead body will I let that mad king touch me." I spat the words at him. "I'd rather die." He







