บททั้งหมดของ MARKED BY THE ALPHA I CAME TO KILL : บทที่ 11 - บทที่ 20

The courtyard had gone still by the time they reached it, the three unfamiliar horses standing patiently beside a scatter of Blackthorn guards who clearly hadn't expected visitors tonight either. Lucian's stride didn't change, but everything about him had shifted. The ease from the hillside folded away somewhere Nyra couldn't see, replaced by the same authority she'd watched command a hall full of strangers on her first night here. The Windmore delegation waited near the entrance, and Nyra's attention went immediately to the man at its center. He wasn't what she expected. Where most of the wolves she'd encountered carried themselves with some degree of guardedness, this man was something else entirely: slim, almost delicate, dressed in soft grays that made no attempt to intimidate anyone. He was, if she was being honest, beautiful in a way that had nothing to do with power. Brassy curls, bright eyes. An easy smile already forming as Lucian approached. The kind of open, cheerful f

Nyra found Lucian in the training yard before breakfast. He was already there, a stern look on his face as he watched two teenage wolves spar. When he noticed her, his face brightened. "I was beginning to think you'd forgotten." "Forgotten what?" "Our rematch." She had forgotten. "You've been waiting?" "Patiently." "I don't believe you know what that word means." His grin widened, and he spread his arms in invitation. "Come prove it." She should have walked away. Instead, she stepped through the gate. Perhaps this was what she needed. Not another conversation. Not another quiet afternoon where she learned what Lucian liked to eat or how he laughed when he forgot himself. Facts. The things she'd have learned about any target before deciding how to kill them. His fighting style. His weaknesses. His instincts. The first exchange was clean. The second was faster, and by the fourth, Nyra had stopped thinking about anything except the fight. Lucian came at her hard, forcin

Nyra woke sore in places she hadn't known could ache. For a few seconds, she didn't remember why. Then she did, all at once, and lay very still, staring at the ceiling. She had shifted. She waited for the horror to arrive. It didn't. What came instead was something closer to curiosity, the way she might have examined a wound to see how deep it actually ran. Her hearing hadn't fully settled back to normal. She could hear footsteps two floors down, could pick out individual voices in the kitchens and could smell bread and woodsmoke drifting through a window she hadn't opened. The world seemed suddenly crowded with things she'd spent years not noticing. Whatever door had cracked open yesterday hadn't closed again. She was still deciding how she felt about that when she heard someone approaching her door, three full seconds before the knock came. Mira let herself in without waiting for an answer, a tray balanced on one hip. "You look like hell." "Thank you." "You're welcome." Mir

The new healer arrived the same morning one of the younger wolves managed to open his own arm on a training blade. Nyra heard the commotion before she saw its cause. A group of pack members had gathered near the gate, where two mules stood loaded with cases and travel packs. At the center of them, kneeling beside the injured boy as though she'd been doing it her whole life, was a woman Nyra had never seen before. She approached the gathering just in time to catch the back and forth between the petite, black-haired woman and the boy. "Hold still," she instructed. "I am holding still." "You're trembling." "I'm not." She looked at him, one eyebrow raised, and the boy grumbled. "Fine." Nyra watched her work. Her hands were steady as she cleaned the wound and set a needle without hesitation. She kept up a low stream of conversation the entire time, making some dry remark about how the boy would have a scar worth bragging about if he stopped whimpering long enough to earn it. B

Nyra spent the morning helping Lucian repair the low stone wall beyond the stables. It was hardly important work. A section had collapsed after the last heavy rain, and someone had decided it would be easier to fix it before winter made the damage worse. Nyra had expected to be bored. Instead, she found herself enjoying it. Lucian held the wooden frame steady while she fitted the stones into place, their shoulders occasionally brushing whenever they reached for the same piece. She had once studied this wall differently. She'd measured the height, counted the steps from the stable and noted the line of trees beyond it and the places where the ground dipped low enough to disappear from view. An escape route. Now she was worrying about whether the stones were sitting properly. The thought made her smile. "You're smiling." Nyra glanced at Lucian. "No, I'm not." "You are." "I'm concentrating." "On a wall?" "Stonework requires concentration." Lucian's mouth twitched. "I'll