LOGINKade stared at me.“I’m here for Ivy,” I said. “And for Debbie. That’s it. I’m not marrying you. In fact, I don’t even want to see you. When Debbie is healed, I want to be done with you completely.” The words were coming fast now, faster than I could think about them.“Do you have any idea what it w
Elena’s POVHe didn’t even pause.The word marry had scarcely been spoken before Kade was already moving on, talking about the logistics of the union that I never agreed to.“Given the circumstances,” he said, “we’ll frame the marriage around Ivy, not love. She needs her mother in the house. Debbie
But I wouldn’t say it. Because I wanted to know Kade’s answer, too.“No,” he said after a pause that felt like an eternity. “I won’t make her a slave again.”I let out a breath I’d been holding for about seven years.It should have felt like more than it did. Maybe later it would. Right now I was ju
Elena’s POVMy mother’s arms were around me. She was crying and holding me tight, and I just… let her.But I didn’t want it. I didn’t want her tears, or her embrace. Too long had I spent in this pack, huddling in fear, wishing that my mother would come to my rescue and hug me, and she never had. Not
Elena’s POVThe wind blew cold and bitter across the grave, bringing with it a drift of snow that settled in the open coffin before Kade’s feet.I pulled away from Tyler before I even realized I was moving.“Elena, wait,” he said, reaching for my wrist, “are you sure you—”“I have to see for myself.
Elena’s POVI couldn’t move.Kade was leaning over me with his hands gripping the arms of the chair, and I was pressed back into it with nowhere to go, and the word was still hanging in the air between us.Samantha.My old name. The one that had died with that broken, emaciated body of a slave seven







