lyn

a deliberate focus meant to wall off the raw, hollowed-out space that had opened beneath my ribs. I counted the heavy gol

of my belly. I had the means to raise my

great bed, with its massive mahogany pillars and damask hangings, now resembled a tabernacle of cold me

ed a carriage to the edge of the pack lands. The wheels groaned over the uneven

, a place where low-ranking wolves and travelers gathered. A cacophony of rough

strong mead to warm my blood. But the Oracle's warning was a fresh sting in my mind. I had to prote

near the bar. Three large men in the leather armor of high-ranking Warriors were laug

t by the stoop of his shoulders and the way the others in

a silver coin onto the floor. "Pick it up with your teet

ite a burn that festered for weeks. The boy stared at t

holar wolf, brilliant with ancient texts, but his

ced by the memory of a rain-slicked alley eight years past. I saw myself, a girl of a high house, shrouded in furs, halting the pack g

over to the bar. I pulled a small piece of fine parchment from my pocket a

onto Arthur's tray,

voice clear enough for the Warriors to hear, "com

, though the news of the rejection had clearly not yet filtered down to this

face, his eyes wide with a disbelief th

last of my warm milk, pulled my hood over m

, my family framed and slaughtered. Standing on the high castle parapet, the wind tearing at my gown, ready to step into the void. Lucius, grabbing me fro

tear slipped

nd-not a clean blow, but a grinding, splintering force, like a great stone being

rushing force of his Alpha will t

hing. If he wanted me gone, he would have to live with the silence. But his d

ng through the breach he had torn in his own defenses. A single, fragmented sentence, drenched in a despa

bs. What altar? But the fissure sealed shut, and his presence