Hollis“So I said, ‘Who are you kidding? Your wolf doesn’t even have two ears.’” Lord Gunnar, one of the Snowcrest nobles Father begrudgingly agreed to bring on the trip, bursts into laughter at his own joke.Father nods once, crisply, and takes another drink from his cup. Zain, my Beta whenever I t
The dark hair and eyes, the dress that looks like nobody’s seen it in the light in twenty years, the vague aura of social ineptitude.“Lucky guess,” I reply. “Are you mated?”She giggles again. I tighten my hold on her and hope she finds that romantic. This kind of information-gathering is not where
CandaceI shrink lower in my seat. My mark brands my skin like a hot iron, and I just swallow the pain. Eva found me hiding out at the edge of the party, trying to convince myself to join in and risk seeing either of them. I tried to warn her that I wasn’t very good company, but she’s too good of a
On a normal night, I’d be on the dance floor, matching Anwen partner-for-partner. Or, I suppose Baz now. Anwen hasn’t been more than six feet from Estrella since the two of them arrived. Dance lessons were one of my favorites growing up and the easiest skill we were forced to learn. If I can impress
HollisThrough the darkness, Candace’s pale brow wrinkles. I clench my fists.“Why?” she asks.Hell of a question. One I have no idea how to answer.“Eva gave you a chance to tell her everything. To make me look like the asshole.” I study her through the gap I sliced in the side of her tent. “Why di
“She picked them?” Candace’s mouth opens in shock.“Skipped that part, huh?” I grin triumphantly. “She always does. The rest is true—we ate about a dozen each before starting the trek home then made a pie with the rest when we got back. Both of us got violently ill, but not before the cook convinced
CandaceMy heart hammers as my lips slide over Hollis’s. He tastes even stronger than he smells, like a winter day I’m watching through a window. My heart flutters. My stomach clenches.Hollis pulls back. His eyes are wide, pupils nearly swallowing green iris. “We can’t.”Right. My mark sears, and I
I can’t wait another second, and this is the only weapon I have.I reach between us and grasp his cock.Hollis grunts. “Softer.”I loosen my grasp with a small grimace. He’s been inside me, but I’ve never touched him like this. Blindly, I undo his trousers and reach inside. Beads of wetness collect
Kash frowns. “Then how’d she find out? See a mark?”“In effect.” Hollis stares at the rocky floor.“He’s softening it.” I bite my lip. “We didn’t not pursue as much as we intended to, and she caught us. We made a terrible, selfish mistake that’s caused a lot of problems, and we just want to fix them
Candace“This is a bad idea.” Ingrid crosses her arms and glares at her door, like Hollis is just outside of it.He’s not. He’s in my room, waiting for me to come back after I told him his idea was a bad one and that I needed to get someone else’s opinion first.“Is it a bad idea because it’s Hollis
“Lord Soren,” Candace says numbly. “Where is he?”I grimace at the memory of our return home. Soren greeted the caravan at the gate, redder than Father with rage. His bellowing was hard to follow, threading together fights from their childhodbetween him and Father with ancient slights between our fa
Hollis“Come in?” Candace calls hesitantly through the door of one of the lesser guest rooms.I suck in a deep breath. I can smell her even through the door, blackberries and sunshine. Knocking—rather than just tearing down the door like I wanted to the second Lord Gunnar told Father about the addit
“Coming up!” the driver on the front of the carriage calls.Ingrid presses her face to the window. I try to look and almost end up tumbling into Taner’s lap. But finally, the carriage pulls to a stop, and someone opens the door for us to exit.According to protocol, Kieran exits first, with Taner ri
CandaceWhen the sun rises the next morning, it finds me crouching in the stables, sandwiched between one of Finn’s favorite stallions and Ingrid. It lights the wild grin that’s barely left her face since I barged into her drawing practice yesterday and declared Kieran didn’t control me. She immedia
That leaves me with Kash as company. He likes to walk through the castle with me while I point out places where different things happened. And to eat every meal together. And to spend almost every second that I’m not asleep by my side–making up for lost time, always. By the second day, I’m making up
CandaceI fold dresses into my trunk and listen to the commotion of the rest of the encampment breaking down outside. Kieran decided that letting King Andri cool off would yield the best results, so we’re leaving just as quickly as everybody else. This weird pocket of time with so many people in one
“What?” Ingrid scowls. “You’d think assassinating your own father would be enough to prove that you didn’t agree with him. Throw Mother in the dungeon with Hollis, when we get around to that stage.”Anwen winces.“We’re not throwing Hollis in the dungeon,” Kieran says tightly. “Not least because, in