MasukIt might have been laughable, had circumstances not been so… sad.“So your parents took it badly, I imagine,” I pointed out.Callum huffed and looked into his bottle. “My dad beat the shit out of me.”I pulled my head back. “He what?”Wordlessly, Callum turned, pulling his shirt up to reveal his bac
Liora’s POVI just barely made it into the parking space before the car let out one final groan, then sputtered to a stop, rocking back and forth on the wheels.“Sorry about that, girl,” I said, patting the steering wheel. “That was a lot more driving in one day than I anticipated.”Shirley almost s
“Twenty lashes,” he said. “We’ll see if you change your mind then.”I grit my teeth. “I don’t have to put up with this anymore.”“Would you rather take it, or would you prefer if that little wolfless whore of yours took it instead?”The moment he said those words, I felt all the blood drain from my
Callum’s POVMy father’s shadow darkened the room.There was a time in my life when my father’s presence seemed enormous and all-consuming, like a black hole filling any space he entered. When I was a child, I remembered thinking that he was big enough to reach the moon, or to blot out the sun.I’d
“The ones at the top of the list are our recommended ones,” my father added before I could say anything. “But ultimately, dear, it’s up to you.”I quirked a brow and opened the folder. There were over a dozen names on the list, along with small black-and-white headshots of each bachelor and which pa
Liora’s POVWhen I returned to the palace, I honestly expected to find that half of it had burned down in some freak fire, or that someone was dead.I didn’t find any of that.The palace was as peaceful as ever, quiet and cheerfully lit, the yellow porch lights illuminating the melting snow. The but
There wasn’t.And somehow, that stung more than it should have. I cursed the delusion that allowed me to feel hope.“You’ve been staring at that page for ten minutes,” Drake said from the desk to my side. “You’re either in love or losing your vision.”I didn’t glance up. “You’ve been talking for fiv
Liora I wasn’t sure when I’d passed out. But when I woke, it wasn’t morning yet.The rain had stopped. The wind no longer rattled the windows. The dorm had settled into silence, except for the horror movie still murmuring from the forgotten TV.Mia was curled beside me on the narrow couch, one arm
LioraMia didn’t ask questions, and maybe that’s what made her company feel like a relief instead of another reminder. She didn’t press.I liked that about her.She didn’t fill the silence with nervous chatter or hollow sympathy. She simply stayed nearby, existing beside me with a kind of calm that
CallumThere was something almost impressive about the way Bianca’s confidence collapsed when the script seem to run out.She tried to speak.I could see it now, her mouth opened once, then again, but the words didn’t come. Maybe she was trying to remember which lie she’d last used, or maybe she sim







