جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

Elle“You can still change your mind.”Dad said it from the doorway while Mom was pinning my veil into place. She caught his eye in the mirror.“Mason.”“I don’t give a shit how many people are waiting.” He looked at me. “If you don’t want this, we don’t go.”“I want to marry him, Dad.”“Then I’ll walk you down the aisle.”His voice caught on the last word. That did it. I went to him, gathering my skirt out of the way, and he wrapped his arms around me with a rough little laugh.“Don’t make me cry,” I said into his jacket. “Mom spent an hour on my face.”He kissed the top of my head. “Still my girl, though.”“Always.”Mom came over to straighten the veil we’d already ruined. She wiped beneath Dad’s eye with her thumb, then took my hand and led me downstairs.Soren called halfway to the church.“Where are you?”“Five minutes away. Possibly six if Dad keeps driving like there’s a cake on the roof.”“Precious cargo,” Dad said, watching us in the rearview mirror.Soren laughed. I pressed

ElleThe answer should have terrified me. Instead, it cleared my head. If the mate bond was gone, Soren no longer had even that lie between us. All he had was a ring, a room full of witnesses, and the nerve to look wounded after paying to have me murdered.Around us, the Moonlight pack house had gone silent. Most evenings, elders claimed the couches, warriors raided the kitchen after patrol, and unmated wolves lingered near the fire. My parents lived there, but it was also our council hall and the heart of pack life.Tonight, blue ribbons hung from the beams and champagne waited on silver trays. Moonlight’s senior families had come to watch their Alpha’s daughter accept her fated mate. Ordinary couples broke up every day. Refusing a bond believed to come from the Moon Goddess was a scandal.Soren slowly rose from one knee. "Elle, you woke up terrified and came downstairs looking like you’d seen a ghost. You’re not thinking clearly."He sounded patient. Soren had always been good at gi

Elle“I’m not Lily!”The king’s body covered mine, one knee between my legs and his hand locked around my wrist. Heat poured through his open shirt—far too much, even for a Lycan—and his rough breath against my throat said he was barely holding together.“Dominic, listen to me.” I shoved at his chest with my free hand. The muscle beneath my palm felt hard enough to bruise me. “James made a mistake. I only used her name to get inside.”His mouth stopped an inch from my skin. “You came into my room dressed like that and gave my secretary the name of the woman he sent to my bed.”“I didn’t know what she was being paid for.”“Then you’re either lying or reckless.” His gaze moved over my face, dark and unfocused. “I haven’t decided which.”“Get off me and I’ll explain.”For one ugly second, I thought he would ignore me. His fingers tightened, gold flashed in his eyes, then his jaw clenched. He released me so suddenly the cold air felt like a slap.Dominic backed away, dragging a hand over

ElleDominic’s hand remained suspended beside my neck while our breaths mingled. My wolf pushed hard beneath my skin, desperate for him to close the final inch. I wanted his palm on me. His mouth back where it had been.Instead, his fingers curled into a fist and dropped.“What I believe,” I said, forcing my thoughts away from his mouth, “is that Soren betrayed me. He wanted Moonlight more than he ever wanted me, and he has been lying to my family for a long time.”“He is involved with another woman?” Dominic asked.I had watched Soren kiss Rosalie after arranging my parents’ deaths and heard them celebrate while my body cooled beside the road. But in this life, I had memories instead of evidence and three months to change the future.“I will never marry him. I do not care what our families expected or what the bond once felt like. He does not get my name, my body, or my father’s pack.”Nothing in me wanted Soren. The woman who loved him had died with her illusions. I had not.Dominic

ElleI didn’t know why Soren wanted the stranger gone.I only knew he wanted it badly enough to hurt a dying man in front of witnesses, which meant the stranger was staying.I bent Soren’s wrist back until his grip broke. He cursed and turned on me, but I shoved him away from the car before he could reach in again.“Get him inside,” I ordered the nurses.They moved this time. One lowered the stretcher while the other climbed into the back seat to support the man’s shoulders. He cried out when they freed his injured leg, and his hand caught mine with surprising strength.“I’m here,” I told him. “They’re going to help you.”Soren stepped toward us. “He is not a member of this pack.”“Emergency treatment does not require membership.”Every territorial law recognized a healer’s right to stabilize a dying wolf. Admission after that required the Alpha’s approval, but Soren was not the Alpha, no matter how many people had begun treating him like one.“My father will decide whether he stays,”