تسجيل الدخولHenry's povKennedy’s bark turned the ballroom into a silent ground. She came through the ballroom entrance with a rigid posture and a sneer on her face. Her gown was severe, dark blue and high-collared, and her wolf pressed forward with a dominance that parted the crowd like water. Guests stepped aside without being asked. Conversations dropped to murmurs. Even the wolves who outranked her moved, because Kennedy carried herself with a fury that had nothing to do with pack hierarchy and everything to do with personal offense.Every head in the room turned.She walked straight to Beatrice.Beatrice was standing near the edge of the dance floor with Martin beside her, her ankle still visibly swollen, her white gown stained with champagne from the earlier fall. She looked tired and beautiful and entirely unprepared for what was coming.Kennedy stopped in front of her, lifted the glass of red wine she'd been carrying, and threw it directly into Beatrice's face.The wine hit her in a wave
Beatrice's povHis hand found my waist in the dark and pulled me against him.The contact was immediate and total, my chest against his, his arm locked around me, and I could feel every line of his body through the thin fabric of my gown. His wolf flooded the space between us, hot and possessive, and my own wolf reacted before I could stop her, a sharp pull low in my chest that had nothing to do with choice and everything to do with instinct.I twisted against his grip and his arm tightened. I wrenched sideways, hard enough that my swollen ankle gave out and I pitched forward, and he yanked me back before I could fall. The motion was violent and clumsy, and my forehead cracked against his jaw with enough force to make my teeth rattle. Pain bloomed across my skull, and in the same instant his mouth grazed my forehead, not a kiss but something accidental and brief, his lips brushing the skin above my brow where my head had collided with his face.We both went still.Then the lights bla
Beatrice's povI saw him before his scent reached me.Cedrick walked through the ballroom entrance with another man at his side, a tall, broad-shouldered Alpha whose presence alone caused a shift in the room's energy. The wolves nearest the door straightened instinctively, their bodies responding to a dominance that was different from Cedrick's but nearly as heavy. I'd heard of him. Alpha Aldric, leader of the Wolf Clan, one of the oldest and most powerful packs in the region. He moved with the lazy confidence of a man who had never needed to prove anything to anyone, and beside him Cedrick looked exactly as he always looked, composed and cold and entirely in control.I spun around.My only thought was distance. I needed to be on the other side of the room, behind a column, through a door, anywhere his eyes hadn't reached yet. I moved too fast. My heel caught the edge of the carpet and I stumbled forward into a server carrying a full tray of champagne. The tray went sideways, glasses
Beatrice's povSeeing that it was out of his hands, the gamma muttered his thanks to Martin before disappearing down the corridor. The air still smelled like Neah's perfume and the sharp, bitter scent of her mother's anger, and my wolf was still pacing restlessly inside me, processing the aftermath of a fight that had ended before it truly began.Martin watched the Gamma go, then turned back to me."Your problems are my problems," he said. "I thought I'd made that clear by now.""You've made a lot of things clear," I said. "I'm just not sure I believe all of them yet."He smiled at that, "Fair enough. But I need a favor.""A favor." I stared at him. "You just saved me from the dungeon and now you're calling in a debt?""No, not a debt. A request." He leaned against the wall, giving me space the way he always did. "There's a banquet tonight. The annual Alpha Ball. Every pack leader in the region will be there, along with half the court and most of the nobility. I need a guest on my arm
Beatrice's povI didn't move from where I stood.Neah and her mother blocked the doorway, and behind them the corridor was empty, and inside the records room there was nowhere to go except through them. My wolf pressed forward, low and watchful, reading the threat in their posture, in the rehearsed fury on Neah's face, in the careful smile on her mother's mouth that said this had been planned down to the last detail."You're not searching me," I said. "You have no evidence and no authority.""No authority?" Neah's mother laughed, a high, brittle sound. "My daughter is the king's intended. That gives us more authority over a slave than you seem to understand.""Intended doesn't mean married," I said. "And until there's a crown on her head, she has no more right to touch me than any other woman in this palace."Neah's eyes narrowed. She turned to the corridor and raised her voice. "Gamma."Footsteps approached, heavy and measured, and a man appeared behind them. He was broad and militar
Beatrice's povI looked at Martin, standing between me and Cedrick with his feet planted and his shoulders squared, and I thought about Callum.My brother in his cell. My brother whose execution order had been withdrawn only because I had promised not to cross Cedrick again. My brother whose life hung on the thin, fraying thread of a king's patience, and that king was standing in the doorway with gold burning in his eyes and the word "choose" still ringing off the walls.There was no choice. There had never been a choice."Martin," I said. "Thank you. For everything but I don't need you to walk me anywhere."Martin looked at me, and I could see the protest forming behind his eyes, the argument he wanted to make, the hand he wanted to extend. His wolf pressed forward, protective and warm, and for a second I almost changed my mind because the warmth was real and I was so tired of being cold."Beatrice," he said quietly. "You don't have to do this.""Yes I do."I stepped around him and w
Elena’s povLydia didn't wait to be invited in.She stepped past Blake like he wasn't even there, her heels clicking against our hardwood floors. "I'm here in my capacity as Chief Warrior," she announced, smoothing her dress as she surveyed our living room. "A formal visit."Blake moved to block h







