lea'

etched, thick a

e, face purple. "You told me she was my cous

to meet his gaze. Her sil

! After everything we've given you, y

You gave me a borrowed name and a life of servitude. Y

ing. "I will marry Enzo Barnes. But n

ight settle. "My price i

Rosalie looked

lammed down on his mahogany desk

request a private audience with the Alpha King's mother. I will tell her everything. How the noble Thorne family picked up a wolfless stray and

royal family will feel about that. Do you think the Alpha Prince wil

, striking at the hea

agmatist. I could see the calculations behind his eyes-

if not days. Once I was gone, the money-along with whatever compensation the royal family

replaced by dark, predatory cunnin

sorrow. "Very well, Galilea. If that's what you feel you are owe

and contempt. But I didn't car

neutral territories," I said, retrieving a small, engraved token from m

, a familiar static whisper brushed against my mind. Shadow. The Ironhold Vaults confirm receipt. Ten million gold coins, sealed under yo

dress they'd provided. No ceremony. No guests. I

of the Thorne family

that had been my prison for two decades. Nothing. No sadness,

old and Eleanor, toasting their cleverness. Rosalie, d

give way to wilderness. I closed my eyes and reached out

secure. Initiate Web Weaving p

monster's lair, into a future of violence and uncertaint

'd just funded my fir