ry

I saw it in the way Bryson's jaw clenched, the way a muscle jumped in his

thing. You're bluffing, Audry. You're jus

n, peering at me with wide, tearful eyes. "How could you be so cruel?" s

ick with sweat. "Audry, enough of this

rectly at Kaila. I took a slow, deliberate step towards her. Then a

oyingly sweet floral perfume she always wore. I didn't look at her face.

ssed her face. Her hand instinctively flew to cover her

owering my voice to a conspiratorial whisper,

te clinic across the county line was last Tuesday, wasn't it? Dr. Alis

nd absolute. It was as if I ha

opped, and a strangled gasp escaped her lips. Her eyes, wide with horror, stare

, his shoulders slumping. He pointed a trembling finger at me, his mouth openin

led to the floor in a heap of re

ift in the room, stammered, "What... w

'm talking about the bastard child of a Stein heir, conceived with a low-born mistress while he was engaged to me. If y

lunged-not running, but a true, beast-like pounce, dropping to all fours and launching himself at me with his shifting claws inches from my l

O

of the great hall didn't just open-they exploded inward, ripped from their hinges

destruction c

tent it felt like the air itself was turning to ice, crushing my lungs,

nees, his body trembling uncontrollably, u

bsolute, soul-deep terror. The color drained

c whimper and pressed herself flat against the

he back of my neck prickled, as though invisible fingers had closed around it, demanding submission. I didn't submit. I had faced death. I had felt my lifeblood drain on

t, a tall, broad-shouldered specter of death. He stepped o

s hair was as dark as a moonless night, and his eyes... his eyes were chips of obsidian, sharp and predat

he Alpha of Stone River Pack

w, then the weeping girl flattened on the floor, then my trembling father. Only then

the door. When he spoke, his voice was a low, magnetic rumble that vibrated through the

" he said. His eyes locked on mine. "I heard