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All Chapters of Blood And Desire: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

115 Chapters

Murder

Her father died with a silver table knife in his neck, and the last thing he saw was her.One moment Scarlett Albagard was pushing food around her plate, doing what she always did at these dinners: keeping her head down while Lord Fallon, Alpha of the Oshea pack, and his wife Ramona fought over her son Leander again. The same argument, the same raised voices, the same chirping from Leander that made her father’s jaw tighten. She had learned long ago to stay quiet and mind her food.Then Leander stood up.There was no warning. His face twisted into something she had never seen on it, and he drove the blade into the back of their father’s neck.“Father!”Her chair crashed behind her. Goblets shattered, platters skidded off the table, and she didn’t care. She ran. Fallon staggered forward, a wet, choking sound escaping him as blood poured down his tunic, and Scarlett caught him as his knees gave out. He was a big man, broad as a door, and she couldn’t hold him. She lowered him to the cold

Slave

The slave inn stank of sweat, sour ale, and men who had stopped caring what they were buying.Winter Drayonne, Alpha Lycan of Dravonia, sat at a scarred oak table near the hearth with a cloak of midnight wolf fur around his shoulders, the pelt of a kill barely three months old. The crowd had noticed him the moment he walked in. Then they had very carefully stopped noticing him. When a serving girl slammed down two tankards and a tray of boar stew, she fled before his gray eyes could so much as lift.Across from him, August Saffron, his Beta, tore into a hunk of bread with the relaxed ease of a man who had never once been bored in his life. One hand rested near his dagger. His eyes missed nothing.“You hate this place,” August said around a mouthful.“I hate that I’m here.” Winter’s gloved fingers curled around his tankard. He hadn’t touched it. “Imogen wants a servant and the court wants to see her get one. So I’ll buy one and be done.”It was a task beneath his station, and he had no

Rules

The cold hit first, then the screaming of every nerve in her body.Scarlett jolted upright as a bucket of freezing water crashed over her, stealing her breath and soaking through what was left of her dress. She gasped, sputtered, and dragged silver hair off her face. Her honey-brown eyes snapped open to bare stone, an iron-barred slit of a window, and the smell of damp and fear.She was on the floor. Her wrists burned where the ropes had cut. Every bone in her body ached from the wagon.Behind her, in the corner, a huddle of women pressed against the wall like frightened animals. Ragged. Shaking. Watching her.Then boots clicked against the flagstones, slow and sharp, and a woman stepped into the torchlight.She was tall, with a warrior’s stance and dark hair braided so tight it looked like a weapon. Her emerald eyes cut through the gloom and stopped on Scarlett, and stayed there.“I am Odessa, Beta of Dravonia.” Her voice cracked like a whip. “You are in the undercroft of Castle Holga

Ownership

The hall went quiet before he even entered.Odessa led them in under the glow of the braziers, two more female Betas flanking the line, leather armor creaking with every step. The women had been scrubbed raw and dressed in plain wool the color of ash. Their wet hair gleamed in the firelight, and their eyes stayed fixed on the floor. All but one.Scarlett’s silver hair had been combed clean and braided loosely down her back, and it caught the light like a blade. Her honey-brown eyes moved over the vast hall, across the towering pillars and the shadows between them, and she did not lower her gaze once. The simple gray dress hung plainly on her. It did nothing to hide who she was.Then the doors opened and Alpha Lycan Winter Drayonne walked in with his midnight cloak trailing behind him like a shadow he’d brought with him, armor glinting cold under the fire. August Saffron stayed at his heel, amber eyes sweeping the room with easy, practiced watchfulness. But no one was looking at August.

Luna Imogen

The dawn had barely touched the arrow-slits when the harem door slammed open.“Up! Now!”Odessa stormed in with a wooden stick, cracking it against the iron bunk frames, each blow ringing like a whip. The Omegas jolted awake, scrambling down ladders with muffled whimpers. All but one.Scarlett was already sitting upright on the top bunk, knees pulled to her chest, silver hair spilling over her shoulders like spilled moonlight. She hadn’t slept. The shadows under her honey-brown eyes said so. She knew exactly what her stillness did to Odessa. The Beta wanted cowering, and Scarlett gave her none.She took her time unfolding herself, then dropped to the stone floor, bare feet silent, and met Odessa’s glare with eyes that promised nothing like fear.Jada slipped in behind the Beta, carrying bundles of pale-blue linen so soft it seemed stolen from the clouds. It slid cool and fine over scarred skin, nothing like yesterday’s scratchy wool. The women dressed in hurried silence.“Move,” Odessa

Tributes

The courtroom of Castle Holgah stood empty, a cavern of cold stone and guttering torchlight. At its far end, a wolf-carved throne loomed under the vaulted ceiling like a judgment waiting to be passed.Alpha Lycan Winter Drayonne strode through the iron-banded doors, his black fur cloak heavy on his shoulders, August Saffron beside him. Their voices were low and sharp.“Oshea’s tribute,” August said, adjusting the satchel at his hip. “Short. Grain, ore, coin, all of it laughably light. With no word, no excuse, and no apology.”The thin scar through Winter’s left eye stood out pale against his darkening face. “They test me,” he said, and the growl in the words seemed to chill the air.He snapped his fingers at a guard by the pillar. “Summon River Kedalf. Oshea’s ambassador. Now.”The guard bowed and hurried out. Winter climbed the dais and settled onto the iron throne with a predator’s grace while August passed him a parchment, its seal already broken. Winter unrolled it and ran his eyes

Opportunity

Twilight washed the harem’s high windows in violet as Scarlett and the Omegas were herded into a bathing chamber so thick with steam it was hard to see the far wall.The air smelled of roses, wide wooden tubs carved with wolf motifs stood in a generous ring, each one filled with steaming water and scattered with crimson petals that floated like blood on snow. It was beautiful. It felt like a mockery.Attendants peeled the linen from the women’s shoulders and pressed a lump of jasmine soap and a rough cloth into each pair of hands. Scarlett lowered herself into her tub with her teeth clenched. The heat bit into the welt on her calf, still throbbing where Odessa’s stick had landed twice, and then slowly softened into something almost like relief. Her silver hair fanned out across the water like spilled moonlight.Boots clicked on tile and Odessa strode in with a leather whip coiled in one hand, her braid pulled tight as a lash, and began to pace the aisles between the tubs. Her emerald e

Tender

TenderMoonlight spilled through the open balcony of the Luna’s chambers, softening the silk draperies and the thick wolf-fur rugs. Alpha Lycan Winter Drayonne came in without a sound, his black cloak unclasped, the scar through his left eye gentled by candlelight. Imogen lay on a velvet couch with her silver hair spilling over sapphire silk and the swell of her belly, and the moment she saw him, her pale-blue eyes lit up.“Out, all of you,” she told the Omegas. They bowed and scurried away, and the door shut behind them. “Winter.” She patted the cushion beside her. “Come.”The hardness in him eased, just slightly. It always did, here.“Why are you awake?” he asked, low and warm. “It’s late.”“I’m not tired yet.”He sat beside her and took her hand in both of his. His calloused palm slid over the taut curve of her belly, and a long breath rumbled out of him as the child shifted under his touch, a small, stubborn kick against his fingers.“You need rest,” he murmured. “For his sake.”He

Refusal

“So you’re the surprise meant to lull me to sleep?”Winter’s voice cut through the moonlit chamber as the heavy door thudded shut behind him. His boots rang on the stone. He crossed to the bed, let his black cloak slide from his shoulders, and began to remove his silver rings one by one, setting each on the dresser with a faint clink. He did not look at her.Scarlett stood at the balcony with the night wind pulling at the sheer silk that barely covered her. Her pulse beat in her throat like a trapped bird. She kept her face perfectly still.“Odessa was thorough,” she said. Her tone was almost conversational, as though she were speaking to an old comrade instead of the man who owned her. “She took great care to drill your preferences into us.”The clinking stopped and Winter turned, and there was a flicker of something in his gray eyes. Interest, maybe. Or irritation at being interested.“And what did you learn?”“Not to touch you. Not to look at you.” Her voice did not waver. “And not

Shattered

Each step was agony as Scarlett hauled herself through the frost-kissed halls, her body a ruin from Winter’s claws, blood dripping from her right shoulder and side, she pressed a trembling hand to the gashes, her other palm scraping the icy stone walls for support. Her silver hair hung matted with sweat and blood, her honey-brown eyes clouded with grief—Skye’s betrayal and her own defiance turned to pain, crushed under the Lycan’s wrath.She walked painfully towards the harem, her mind adrift in loss when without warning, a hand yanked her into a darkened alcove, slamming her back against the wall, pinning her in place. A man’s body trapped her, his rough hand sealing her mouth as his pale green eyes darted through the corridor, checking for witnesses, ensuring no guards or Betas lurked.Scarlett’s heart seized, a choked scream of pain muffled and terror stifled against his hand, her wounds screaming louder. “Shh, Scarlett, it’s me—River,” he whispered urgently, his voice gentle. “You

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