登入Briar was lost in her fantasy, but in the next moment, she saw Liam gently shake his head. He was warning her. Briar came to her senses. She no longer wanted to be the naive girl who was always expecting to be loved.Killian stood by the hospital window, his back to Briar. The tension in the room was thick enough to choke on. Outside, the rain had stopped, but the atmosphere inside remained turbulent."I saw her, Killian," Briar said. She was sitting upright in the bed, her hands still instinctively shielding her stomach. "Vivienne was with him. In the alley, before the rogue wolf attacked me. She was talking to him like they were friends. She did this to me. She wanted him to hurt me."Killian turned slowly."Vivienne is many things, Briar, but conspiring with rogues is a death sentence in this pack," he said, his voice dropping to a dangerous low. "Are you sure your mind isn't playing tricks on you again? You were terrified. You were in pain.""I am slow, Killian, but I am not a lia
She knew that he was tall and had immense strength, and even using all her strength, she couldn't compete with him. So she bit him.His hand was clamped over her mouth and nose and she could not breathe and she turned her head the half-inch she had and sank her teeth into the flesh between his thumb and forefinger as hard as she could."FUCK!"He yanked back with a sharp curse and she used all of it, both arms coming down to wrap around her midsection, knees pulling up, curling her body into the tightest possible shape with her hands pressed flat against her stomach. She made herself into a ball around the one thing that could not be hit.The next blow caught her shoulder and snapped her sideways. She did not uncurl.Another one across her back, hard enough that her vision went white at the edges. She pressed her hands tighter against herself and tucked her chin and stayed curled.Her face hit the alley floor. Cold stone. The smell of wet concrete and old garbage and her own blood from
"Just in time," she said. "I've been cooking. Come in." Vivienne pointed to the apron on her body. Vivienne held the door for Eliza and smiled. "I'm so glad you're here. Killian will be happy too."She was so considerate, making Briar seem rude and impolite.Eliza came in and set her bag down and looked at the kitchen where something was actually simmering on the stove. "You've been busy," she said."I like to keep busy," Vivienne said, already moving back toward the pot. "Sit down. It's almost ready."Briar went upstairs.---Eliza leaned against the kitchen doorway and watched Vivienne cook."Briar was different today," she said.Vivienne's stirring did not pause. "Different how?""I had a certain idea of her. Based on what you told me, mostly." Eliza said it plainly. "You said she was jealous of everything, that she embarrassed the pack, that she had stolen money from pack accounts, that she had deliberately spread rumors about you to the elders.""I said I believed those things,"
Briar yanked her hands away from her stomach.Too late. She knew it was too late. She pressed them to her sides and made herself look at Vivienne directly."I'm not pregnant," she said."You just grabbed your stomach like""I have a stomachache! I always do that when my stomach hurts, I hold it, it's just a habit!" Her voice came out too fast and she knew it. "And I've been eating too much lately because everything has been terrible and I stress eat, okay? That's why I look different. That's all it is."Vivienne looked at her hands. Looked at her face. Looked at her hands again."Stress eating," she said."Yes.""That explains the stomach.""Yes! Can you stop looking at me like that?"Vivienne tilted her head slightly. She was still looking at Briar with that focused, private quality, the expression of someone turning something over very carefully.Then the front door opened downstairs.Killian's footsteps in the entry hall. His keys on the table. Then his voice coming up the stairs,
Briar stared at her."What are you doing in my house," Briar said. Vivienne’s voice was smooth and sweet like poisoned honey. "I’ve actually been staying here for the last three days. Don't be mad, sweetie. I’ve been having these terrible, awful nightmares lately. The doctors said it’s stress. Killian was so worried about me that he insisted I stay here. I feel so much safer when I’m close to him. I hope you don't mind.""I do mind," Briar said. "I mind a lot, actually.You have your own house, You shouldn't be in my house. You shouldn't be in his bed."Vivienne blinked. "Briar.""Don't." Briar turned back to the stove because looking at Vivienne's face was making her chest tight with something hot and not entirely manageable. "Don't do the voice. I know what the voice is for."Briar felt a hot flash of anger. It felt like a physical weight in her chest. A few weeks ago, she would have cried and asked Vivienne why she was taking her husband. She would have believed the lie about the
Eliza Vane did three shifts a week at the hospital's nursing station reception desk. She came in at nine and left at one and spent most of the time between looking at her phone.Briar arrived at eight fifty-five with a container of coffee and a plan Mabel had described as optimistic.The plan was simple: be present, be helpful, let Eliza get used to her. Eventually ask about the compound.She set the coffee on the desk. Eliza looked at it. Said nothing. Briar took that as a neutral sign.There was a supply cart in the corridor that needed moving to the second floor. Briar volunteered before anyone asked. She got the cart into the elevator fine. She got it out of the elevator fine. She misjudged the turn into the supply room by about six inches and the cart clipped the doorframe and the top tier shifted and went over.Gauze rolls. Tongue depressors. An entire box of latex gloves that opened on impact and scattered across the linoleum in every direction.She crouched down and started co







