~AMARIS The command still echoed in my ears…low, rough, and entirely devoid of the heat that had consumed him just moments before. He had dismissed me like I was an inconvenience. Like I was nothing. A tear pricked the corner of my eye, hot and stinging, but it froze in my tracks. Just down the hall, a figure was standing. My heart completely stopped. My pulse, already racing from Varg’s proximity, slammed violently against my ribs as I recognized the silhouette. Ember. Panic, sharp and blinding, replaced the haze in my mind. I froze against the doorframe, my hands instinctively clenching into the fabric of the red dress. If she looked up, if she saw me standing outside her father’s private quarters in a sheer, rumpled gown with my hair scattered and my breathing shattered, everything would be over. The betrayal would be undeniable. The secret would bleed out, and the fragile sanctuary I had sought in this pack would burn to ash. But luck…or perhaps a cruel twist of fate…was on m
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