Walking into the closet, I collect all the spare pieces of fabric and lace that the thieves left behind. Then I carry it back into the other room.By now, Bethany has pulled herself together enough to stand. She meets me beside the bed, where I drop all the fabrics down.She saved me once before, se
Caleb follows me back to my room. I’m annoyed, frankly, because Bethany put a lot of effort into this dress only for me to be unable to truly show it off. But Caleb’s insistence has me moving my feet, booking it back to my room and then to my closet.Bethany is still in the rooms, cleaning up from t
It’s a strange moment, watching a man so powerful, so deadly even, hold something so fragile. He’s careful not to crush the flowers as he brings it over to me.He holds it out. “It smells like you.”My eyes go wide, and my heart races out of control.Sexual overtures, I expect from him. Gruff, angry
“You will tell me what I want to know,” Caleb growls, voice far colder than he’s ever used with me, even at his most angry. “You will die either way, but the speed of your death is what remains on the table. If you wish to spare yourself any more pain, you will speak quickly.”The bound man raises h
Plus, losing the support of a pack, even a lesser one, would weaken his kingdom. The other packs might consider rebellion, if they ever discovered he left many of their own to die.And then, there’s Harper… She shouldn’t be a consideration. She wasn’t really. An afterthought, at most… But it would d
“This isn’t a good idea,” Bethany insists, more urgently before. “Whatever you saw him do, you’ll be the next one tortured if you try to escape. How would you even do it? There’s no way out of here.”I know, deep down, I’m not thinking clearly, but my fear is so rampant that I can’t just sit here, w
Entering Madeline’s chambers, I immediately spot a familiar face. The handmaiden attending Madeline I recognize as Nina’s old handmaiden Molly. I suppose Nina acted alone in her treachery of me, but it still seems strange to see her handmaiden again, standing there smiling vaguely as if nothing happ
Madeline, Molly, and I all watch the growing hole on the floor until it finally stops hissing. As I place the now-empty teacup back on the table, I’m positively fuming. Molly looks pissed too, but I’m sure for different reasons. She likely wanted me dead. Madeline seems utterly indifferent to the wh
That’s… odd. I was expecting more fight from him. At the very least, I thought he might just storm off and leave me alone. But now he wants to… help? Maybe my words got through to him. Does he now see how important it is for us to work together to survive? Containing my pride, I return to my wor
For a brief moment, Caleb’s entire face goes slack with shock. In that instant, I feel vindicated, like maybe he’ll learn something now. However, in the next second, his face hardens instead. His words like ice, he says, “What did you just say to me?” Any other day, maybe I would have backed dow
My main worry is for Tristan and his safety on his dangerous mission. My second worry, however, is for myself, as I’m now alone with him in this farmhouse. There are no other slaves, or servants. No cooks. No cleaners. No other harem women to sate his needs – although that makes me more pleased than
Tristan and Caleb, talking lightly. I also notice that the clothes I left on the coffee table for Caleb are gone. Standing from the couch, I cross the room, closer to the door. “You can’t just go back storming through the gates,” Tristan says. “We don’t know the state of anything right now. Geor
Bethany keeps her head down, completing her work scrubbing the blood from the balcony while trying to not to panic about the very clearly bear soldiers still in the capital, posing as King’s guards. All the while, she waits for her chance to come forward and warn the Gamma about what she’s seeing.
Eventually, once the shooting and the screaming ends, Bethany crawls out from under her bed. There are so many safe rooms in the capital but each one she tried was taken with people of higher rank than her, unwilling to share their space with her. In the end, with nowhere else to go, she retreated b
Caleb pats his thigh like he wants me to come sit on his lap. He can’t be serious. The man could barely walk across the room on his own and now he wants to have sex? “We should wait,” I start to say. His eyes narrow. “You dare deny your king?” He adds a frown. “Or do you think your king incapabl
Caleb gently twists his body this way and that, feeling each poke of discomfort. “That explains why I feel like swiss cheese. Help me to the couch then, damn it.” Tristan and Harper both help Caleb to his feet and together they shuffle toward the floral-pattern couch against the wall. “A bed wou
Caleb’s vision is red as he closes his hands around the traitor’s throat. He has her up against the wall, her feet dangling, kicking wildly. She claws at Caleb’s hands with her dull human fingernails, as if that would ever be enough for him to not see justice done. “C-Caleb…” she gasps, the villai