Terry continued, listing each girl as well as the points they earned. Toward the end, he said, “Susie. Two points.” He offered no explanation. Susie looked relieved. “As for our final candidate,” Terry began. I held my breath because by now, I was the only one who had yet to be mentioned. “I rec
“Stop this at once,” the King said. It was then that I noticed, Julian had swiftly moved around the stage without catching his mother’s attention. I hadn’t seen him move either. Yet there he was, standing behind the King like he had been there all along. Like he had just been whispering in the K
The next morning after the event, I went with Nicholas to speak with Julian. He was in a sitting room, sipping coffee while reading through a newspaper. Terry’s face was plastered all over the front page, under the headline: Traitor. It still didn’t seem real. I expected him to pop out from any co
Beside me, Nicholas grunted. We both ignored him now. Julian smiled at me. “Thank you, Piper.” As day turned into evening, and evening into night, I could not stop thinking about Jane’s knife and how closely I had come to being skewered. If Nicholas had moved a half-second slower, and I coul
Confronted with the scenario of the man I wanted to sleep with very clearly about to sleep with someone else, I did the only thing I could think to do. I swiveled on my heel without a word and took off down the hallway. I fully intended on returning to my room, crying my eyes out, and then pretend
Nodding at Nicholas, I moved past him and returned to his rooms. He released me at once and fell in step behind me instead. Inside his rooms, I moved toward Lilliana, who was down on one of the ornate rugs. Her legs were kicked out of her, her nightgown drawn up to her hips. She peered up with a s
The next morning at breakfast, Elva and I sat beside Susie and across from Veronica and Tiffany. The excitement with Terry’s capture seemed to be the popular topic for everyone else at the table, except for us. None of us seemed overly thrilled to ever mention Terry’s name ever again. At least, I
Soon, Elva got squirmy and Nicholas lowered her down. She rushed back to her toys and Nicholas came toward Charlotte and me. Charlotte immediately stood. “Please.” She offered him her seat. “I couldn’t,” he said. “I have chores that need tending to,” Charlotte said. That didn’t seem entirely t
Instead, the Queen pulled me into a hug. It was uncomfortable and brief, but a hug none the less. From the Queen, this was a tremendous breach of decorum, and I froze, unsure how to react. Even Nathan, standing dutifully as his King’s side seemed shocked.“I have misjudged you dearly,” the Queen sai
I wasn’t sure what to expect when our car delivered us from the train station to the palace, but even in my wildest dreams, I wouldn’t have guessed what actually awaited us.Cheering crowds lined the outer walls of the palace. Balloons and streamers of various colors were abundant. A stage had been
At once, my heart leapt up into my throat, while simultaneously crashing down into my stomach.I pulled away from Nicholas enough to push myself up onto my hands and stare down at him.The thought of breaking the engagement had never crossed my mind! Nicholas proposing had been one of the best momen
In a war between the wolves and the bears, only the lost bear princess will be able to stop this fighting. Else, the bears will continue to fight themselves to exhaustion or to death.“It’s up to you,” Nicholas said. “I believe in you. You can do this.”I closed my eyes. Miracle was still exhausted,
Slowly, my grief subsided for now, enough for me to look up at Nicholas and feel the relief of being reunited with my fiancé.My… mate.“I love you,” Nicholas said. “I’m sorry it took so long for me to reach you.”“How are you even here? It’s impossible for you to have found me this quickly?”Nichol
Joyce, despite his best efforts, was not a fighter. He was not bred for war and battle like Hawke was, so even calling on the power of his Alpha wolf, Hawk tossed Joyce aside like he was a sack of potatoes.However, Joyce did show amazing tenacity, and stood back up time and time again. Roaring, he
Nicholas was here. I didn’t know how. I didn’t know why. But he was here, and that gave me the strength I needed to act.I ripped my arm away from Joyce’s hold and rushed into the room where Hawk was choking my sister on the ground. Using all of my strength, I plowed into Hawk.My surprise more than
We slipped into the hallway easily enough. The lights were off, so we stuck to the shadows. We didn’t go far when we started to hear raised voices.“I want to know if Piper was telling the truth.” It was Jane.“You cannot mean to trust her more than me,” that was Hawk. His cold voice sent shivers ru
A mating bond…?Yes. Even though Nicholas and I had never talked about the love between us, I had still felt it grow over these months together. Nicholas had never made a bonding bite on my neck, yet inside of me, that bond had cultivated. Our hearts were bound together, mating bite or now.There wa