*Rafe*Pain. Pain is the only thing binding me to reality. Pain–and my Ainslee. I know she needs me, and for that reason alone, I cannot surrender myself to the dark void.I distantly hear the metallic scrape of my cell door opening. I wonder if Kris has come back to finish the job.Instead, a cool hand rests on my forehead, fingers moving up into my bloody hair.“Ainslee?” I ask. It’s little more than a breath, but the fingers tighten viciously.“You, your little she-bitch is being taken care of,” Riley sniffs. “King Kris is going to kill her and make me his queen, as I always should have been.”I groan and lay helpless in my own blood.Riley lets go of my hair. I don’t know what she does with the blood she found there, but she does say, “Ew, gross.”I don’t answer. I can’t muster the energy it would take to respond to Riley. I would if it were Ainslee, but she isn’t here. She’s probably locked up somewhere as well. If he hurts her, I’ll find a way to kill him if it’s the last thin

*Ainslee*I crawl on the bed next to Rafe and he falls asleep stroking my fur. It seems to comfort him. I like snuggling him as a wolf. It feels right.Of course, having my wolf on the surface makes it a little difficult for the medical staff to do their jobs. Every time someone approaches that I don’t recognize, and even some I do, I lift my head and growl.“Could you knock that off?” Jerim grumbles after a while.At this, I bare my teeth.“All right, perhaps not,” Jerim says, holding up his hands in surrender. I’ve never heard him be disagreeable before, but he’s been under a lot of pressure–as we all have been.Mollified, I cuddle back into Rafe, laying my muzzle on his healed shoulder. Now that the silver chains are gone, and he’s getting blood regularly, he’s healing quite fast. The most disturbing wound I’d seen was the one running from the apex of his ribs to his groin. It is a nasty, deep wound, and it’s taking the longest to heal.Jerim keeps puttering around us, swabbing Raf

*Ainslee*The wind blows cold over the wasteland of a courtyard, only half-full when it should have been bursting with men. This is Kris’s fault, I remind myself through the sadness. And he is about to be executed for it.Zeke and a loyal guard named Lawrence, flank Kris on either side as he is brought before the throne, which has been moved outdoors for the occasion. The weather looks as bleak as our situation with Tormentia. I hope the throne doesn’t get ruined by rain.“Kris Moore,” Rafe intones when Kris is forced to kneel before him. “You are accused of high treason against the crown. There is no doubt of your guilt, but if you have any last words in your defense…”Kris, who looks as though he’s had a good going over by the guards we’ve also had to imprison for treason, merely glares at Rafe through one eye. The other one is swollen shut. He spits at him, most of the wad missing. The bloody goo falls on the ground near Rafe’s boot. “False king,” the traitor croaks.I don’t think

*Rafe*I look at today’s numbers and sigh into my hand, scrubbing my stubbly face. Ten thousand. Another ten thousand lost in the south. And not quite as far south as I would like. We’re being completely flattened, and there is nothing–NOTHING–I can do about it. The nobles have sent everyone they can from their respective duchies, and we’ve even considered sending in women. Ainslee suggested that one and has been rather upset with me for shooting her idea down.It’s not a bad idea, and it’s not even that I think women can’t fight. I know they can. I just know there are enough people, from nobles on down, who would be up in arms about such a decision, and we can’t afford that right now.Looking at these numbers, though, I’m starting to think we aren’t going to have a choice. Sending women to war is better than seeing them enslaved or who the fuck know what else. Tormentians aren’t exactly known for their civilized ways.There is a soft rap at my door, and I glance up. Ainslee is there

*Ainslee*The gardens are lovely, except for the body in the middle of the rose bushes. Rafe stands between me and the dead messenger, who is still clinging to the missive we had tried to send to Alpha King Striker.“We thought we’d introduce ourselves in style,” the half wolf-shifter/half vampire before us grins, finally letting go of the two servants he had by the throat.“Go.” Rafe waves them away, and the servants run. The envoy from King Dartmouth of Tormentiais full of half-breeds. All of them are dangerous.“King Dartmouth always says you should make a splash if you’re going to be introducing yourself in his name,” the half wolf-shifter continues while I watch a vein I didn’t know Rafe had pulse in his forehead.My Rafe is angry. I see his hands forming into stone fists at his sides.“I’d say you’ve done that,” Rafe says evenly, indicating the bloodsoaked body.“Good. We’d hate to disappoint our leader,” the half wolf-shifter replies. “Now, it’s adorable, sweet, really, that y