I Ran From The Alpha Only To Become His Roommate
At least here, you chose the battlefield.
Taking a ragged, painful breath that strained against her tightly bound ribs, Angela forced her trembling legs to stop shaking. She bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted iron, grounding herself in the physical pain to drown out the overwhelming terror. She squared her narrow shoulders beneath the heavy flannel shirt, lifting her chin with a stubborn, defiant defiance that mirrored the armor she wore inside.
"Get a grip, Angelo," she muttered aloud to herself, her voice pitched down into the rough, guttural register she had practiced for weeks. "You survived Grazia. You survived the gutter rats. You can survive a bunch of overgrown mutts."