e Bent

low voice commanded f

over broken glass-deep, cal

site door. The cabin was lit only by a faint ambient strip along the r

risp white collar was open at the throat, exposing pale skin over corded mu

yes that pinned

d silver. He looked down at me not with fury, but with the cold detachment o

ing my torn skirt over my bleedin

earms on his knees, his gaze dropping to the floor mats whe

ed Beta wearing wire-rimmed glass

al is locking dow

d me said without looking away from my face.

ood, Mr.

lk

ttural roar, and through the tinted glass, I saw two Page enforcers dive for their lives as our

rantically jerking the latch

onic locks

re rage. "Stop this car! I am an off

just ran out of a boardroom with a bleeding face and shredded clothes, leaving a

pped, lunging for the master co

touched the button

my jaw, his thumb driving into the pressure point beneath my ear

eat surged from his skin straight into mine,

" he comma

ke a falling wall. Even without an inner wolf, my human biology locked in primal

r. "You walk into those streets right now, and Page enforcers will have you in an unmarked van before you cross the avenue. They

lf," I whispered, t

t your feet from broken g

ling lips. Something dark, ancient, and violently possessive flickered in those

shed behind an impen

ingers pulling away as if

at, clutching my throat, rubbing t

ed out a folded white linen handk

g his profile to the rain-streaked wi

rost. I wanted to fling it into his face, but the stinging pain in my soles w

knee, was a heavy signet ring of dark silver, e

taking me?" I a

ins instructed me to deliver you to your register

belief. "You're

I had a use for you tonight? You are a disaster. G

Arthur and Martha were there. My adoptive father had spent thirty y

cracked pavement of the lower Northside, and pulled

ived, sir,"

d. I shoved the door open and

seconds, but I didn't care. I bol

front doors, my h

ards littering the vestibule. The steel fram

" I sc

g them three at a time unti

3B stood

traight down the center, the deadbo

inside. "

The bookshelf overturned, family photographs sto

d Martha

driven four inches deep into the pine coffe

ngle piece of heavy parchment, stamped