Se connecterI didn't remember crossing the platform.
One moment I was at the King's table. The next, the family's table was right in front of me, and every voice around it had gone silent.
"Elora?" Dorian half-rose from his seat. "What are you doing?"
I ignored him. My eyes were on Mother's hand.
The doors slammed open.Heavy boots. Cold night air. The music stumbled and stopped.Damon Cross walked in.He was still in his dark leather armor, with a few guards behind him. He was smiling at something one of them said. He looked pleased with himself.His eyes found Sienna first. His whole face softened.Then he looked up the platform and saw me.In green silk. In a chair beside the Lycan King.His smile died.I watched it happen slowly. First he looked blank. Then confused. His eyes dropped to the clean white bandages on my wrists.He had s
I didn't remember crossing the platform.One moment I was at the King's table. The next, the family's table was right in front of me, and every voice around it had gone silent."Elora?" Dorian half-rose from his seat. "What are you doing?"I ignored him. My eyes were on Mother's hand.The cup had stopped an inch from her lips."Mother. Please don't drink that."She looked up. First she looked startled, then confused, then something sharper, like a woman who had been poked in the ribs in public."Elora." She lowered the cup slowly. "What on earth...""It's the wrong color. There's no blue-wi
Sienna came to our end of the table before the servants had finished cleaning her wine.I watched her stand up. She smoothed her white skirt and spoke quietly to Mother, who nodded and patted her hand. Then she crossed the platform in small, careful steps, like a deer lost in the wrong forest."Your Majesty," she said, sinking into a curtsy. "Alpha Luther. Please forgive the commotion. I'm so embarrassed.""No harm done," Valerius said."You're very kind." She straightened and finally let her eyes drift to the man on my left. A gentle smile appeared on her face. "We haven't been properly introduced, Alpha Luther. I'm Sienna. My family has been so excited about your visit."Denzel set down his glass.
Nobody spoke to me for the first ten minutes.That was fine. I had no appetite anyway. Servants moved down the long tables with silver platters, and the smell of roasted meat and warm bread filled the hall.My stomach clenched at it. I tore a piece of bread in half and made myself eat one bite.Beside me, Denzel said nothing. He sat with his glass in his hand, looking straight ahead, as if he were listening to the room.But his shoulder was a few inches from mine, and I could feel his heat through the silk. My wolf, whatever was left of her, kept turning toward it like a plant toward a window.Stop it, I told her. Not now.
The great hall doors were already open when we reached them.Warm, golden light flowed into the corridor. Music followed, along with voices and the clink of glasses.And something else.Wolves.Dozens of them. I couldn't see them yet, but I could feel them pressing upon my skin, the weight of Alpha auras layered on top of each other. Pine and leather and smoke and sweat. It rolled out of the doorway like furnace heat.My wolf had been silent for eight months. I couldn't scent anything the way I used to. But even without her, I felt it, the way a deaf person feels a drum.I stopped at the threshold. My feet wouldn't move."Take your tim
The gown lay across the bed where I had dropped it.I sat on the floor, my back against the wall, and looked at it for a long time.I'd hate for you to be the reason she doesn't wake up tomorrow.Sienna spoke so softly that anyone outside the door would have heard only two sisters whispering. That was her gift. She never raised her voice, and she never said anything she couldn't later explain.I pressed my hands flat against my knees to stop them from shaking.It was a threat. I knew it. I also knew she could turn mother's heart into a weapon, even though she barely understood it. She had only been home for two years. I had spent fifteen years learning every flutter, every pale lip, every time mother's breath grew short.But knowing didn't help.Because what if I was wrong?What if the banquet went badly? What if the King asked the wrong question, and mother's heart failed in front of everyone? Sienna wouldn't be blamed. No one would blame her. They would look at me, the girl who came







