The Prince's Mistake, The Alpha King's Heir
"After that, they stopped trying it with women anyone would miss. Women from small packs, mostly. The forgotten sort. Unpleasant, difficult, the kind nobody misses and nobody comes looking for when they disappear. It's easier that way, for them. Quieter."
My stomach turned over at the casual way she said it, like she'd explained this a hundred times in her own head before she ever said it out loud to me.
"But none of it has ever worked," she went on. "Every single one of them went wrong, Effie. Every time. There are whispers belowstairs that the Alpha kings were cursed just before their mate died, and that's why no woman carrying their child has ever lived to hold it."
A curse. It sounded li