I wait in the sitting room, prettied, dressed up, and alone. I sit on the couch looking over the backrest like a widow longing for her husband to return home, to come marching up the front yard, through the weeds and untamed growth of her garden. I feel timeless, like the young woman captured in the black and white photograph back home that my father says is his great aunt. She sits on the mantle with the other members of our family history and surveys from her post. But, most of all, I feel helpless. I can fight for the Lunas—for their daughters and their Alpha blood—but I can't save them from their bonds. I can't save Aurora. She is tied to her mate as intricately as I am to my own. It is a deal that flows both ways. David's words are instilled in my mind, in Aurora's mind: No Alpha will let his mate be taken from him.

I didn't tell him I love him. I should have. There are so many things I should have said, but there would've never been enough time for me to say them. There are so many things I wanted to do with him, and half of those things are the repetition of others. He said an hour, but nothing feels real, not since he agreed to the rite. My head is scrambled, but I can focus on one thing: the bond. The roar of the wind at the edge of the cliff blows against my bareness and sways my hair from my back. I hold my legs to my chest and stare out at the sea of forest below-an expanse of green and shadow. All I can hear is the wind as it crashes and drags and swells like monstrous waves. I'm perched at the tip of the rock, at the edge of the sheet, and Lyde monitors from behind. It wasn't long unti

"What did you do with the body," I ask, my back to my mate, the spray of the shower falling down on us like rain. "Aurora asked us to dispose of it," David says, rubbing up and down my shoulders. "How?" He sighs. "We burned it." "I'm starting to understand you were gone for so long." He leaves a kiss on my nape, and I turn to face him. "I have to speak with her after this. Tarlo is bringing her to the house, and you're welcome to sit in on our discussion. Maybe she'd appreciate your presence. You're her friend, after all." "How much did she see of it?" "Nothing. She stayed i

"I think it's done." I lift my eyes from my computer screen to look at both Bonny and Jeremy as they sit at the dining table with me. Jeremy says, "Let's hear it." "Okay," I mutter and straighten up in my seat. Bonny watches with encouraging eyes, and I loosen up my shoulders. "Here it is." We've been working for the past two days since Bonny arrived. We leave for Germany the day after tomorrow, and the final piece of our preparations is my speech for the main discussion. And I think I've done it. "Hello, good afternoon, I am Luna Amin of the Amin Pack in North America, but please, call me Brigette. It isn't a secret that I am new to the Union, to leadership—I haven't been a Lun

Sunlight is diffused into a soft glow by the sheer curtain pulled over the large window in my room. I have been awake for a while already, yet I haven't left the bed. I lay on my back with my head propped against two pillows, and I rub my flat tummy as if casting a spell. The incantation is a murmur on my lips. "If you're in there, just hang on. We're only here for one more night, and then we'll get back home to your Daddy. I just need you to work with me, okay?" It's almost eight o'clock. Jeremy will knock on my door any moment now to make sure I'm getting myself ready for the day. There are meetings in the late morning all through the afternoon, then tonight we have a formal dinner which I packed a very sophisticated dress for—clean edges, all business. Without David, this is no more than a business trip, but maybe next time we can come together and explore Germany for an extra few da