nor

ilence I expected. I woke

hed, my lungs spasming as they filled with thick, black smoke. My eyes snapped open, sti

ogany table where I had discovered the poison was now just a charred skeleton. I tried to scram

he wood, my nails breaking against the splintered surface, but I was weak. The suppressants Adrian had fed me for years had

e sound was swallowed by the

the double doors were kicke

st the hallway flames. Even thro

. Despite everything-the poison, the lies, the photo of Ariel-he was still my Alp

aos, wild and frantic. For a heartbeat, his gaze locked onto mine. I reached out a trem

dn't move

st me to the far side of the

t I had never seen before, was Ariel. She was unconscious, he

left of my heart. It wasn't the calculated mask h

d her name, a sou

nst my outstretched hand as he ignored it completely. He scooped Ariel up into his arms, crad

the smoke stealing my voice.

e looked back at me, his expression hard, his jaw c

mouth, and his voice boomed with the supernatural weigh

I'll be bac

lock up. I couldn't struggle. I couldn't drag mysel

oke, taking his true mate with him

knew it with a clarity that cut through the panic. He had saved what mattered t

I closed my eyes, the unnatural stillness of the Command keeping me pinned as t

new scen

rwhelmingly so. It smelled of deep, ancient earth, crushed pine needles, and the electric charg

nd y

, vibrating throug

than Adrian. His face was obscured by a dark cloth wrapped around h

a grunt that sounded more like a growl, he heaved. The wood that had trapped me moved

his arms. He felt solid, like a mountain, and that strang

e rumbled ag

he moved with a predatory grace, weaving thro

de me dizzy. He carried me away from the burning wing, toward the

y the shadows of the tree line. My leg thr

as on his knees. He was clutching Ariel, rocking her back and forth, checking her face, her hand

ack. He hadn't e

dark. I looked up at him, my vision blurring as the a

, reaching out to

ectively, over mine. And as the blackness took me, the only thing I felt was the li