All Chapters of En Garde! My Wolf: Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

"Priceless is a sentimental word," Dr. Corvin continued as we crossed the east gallery. "Everything has a value. Historical, political, academic, emotional, or financial. Usually several at once. Your job is to understand which value you are handling before you decide how it should be preserved."She spoke without looking at me. She was perhaps fifty, though her charcoal suit and silver-threaded hair made age feel irrelevant. I liked her immediately. I also wanted, with a sickening intensity, not to fail her.Three years of postgraduate conservation training, two museum placements, and eleven exhausting months cataloguing municipal records had taught me a harsh reality, liking a supervisor and impressing one were entirely different achievements."Understood," I acknowledged, keeping my pace even with hers."Perfect. Because you will eventually be trusted with things people have killed one another over."I glanced at her profile, searching for a twitch of a smile or some subtle indicat

The harsh glare of the examination lamp showed every flaw in the century-old fencing jacket. Dr. Corvin had charged me with finding every place a mid-century curator had "improved" it with synthetic thread. Painstaking work. I welcomed it."Criminal," I murmured under my breath.Anika, a junior conservator with messy braided hair, glanced over from the next worktable. "What is it?""Polyester."She pressed a gloved hand to her heart in mock horror. "Thoughts and prayers to your sanity."I shook my head in response. Dr. Corvin had vanished upstairs twenty minutes earlier for an administrative meeting, leaving me with strict instructions to complete the preliminary condition report before touching anything else.The shutter clicked as I captured the final angle of a particularly botched seam, the high-resolution image flashing onto the connected monitor. Across the desk, the sharp, rhythmic buzz of a phone vibrated against the leather blotter. Anika reached out, swiped the screen, and l

The clocks chimed six-twenty, marking the official conclusion of my first day at the Hohenzollern estate. I had done more than merely survive the ordeal, I had somehow earned a rare crumb of approval from Dr. Corvin.Not extravagantly, of course. Maëlys Corvin did not strike me as a woman given to wild hyperbole where professional validation was concerned. She had simply stopped beside my workstation while reviewing the condition report in unreadable silence, and tapped one neatly manicured fingernail against my documentation of the synthetic thread."Good eye."That was all. Yet, I had been insufferably, ridiculously pleased with myself for the following forty minutes."You're doing it again," Anika broke the silence, pulling on her coat.I looked up from my terminal. "Doing what?""Smiling at a blank screen.""I had a productive day.""You've been trapped in a windowless sub-basement since morning." She shook her head, slinging her bag over her shoulder. "That isn't a normal human re