Abandoned by All, Until the Mad Alpha Claimed Me

he

I will

ould sense it in my bones--th

were now fussing over me with unsettling attentiveness, lacin

care, as though afraid to leave

king the final prepara

the day had finally come. Someone had offer

as allowed to be c

I could not ha

said it flatly, with the particular distas

, at least,

ormed--perfectly compliant, perfectly pleasing, wearing the smile I had sp

ice of that perfect smile. Even now, touching them summoned the memory of the despair that had carved them into me: t

myself. Not to want. Not

utside the door sounded slightly

into the room wearing the smile I had seen ten thou

back was to the other women in the r

ound my jaw like a vi

made it worse. "You are finally going to be of so

cker of something

Remember everythi

new

never heard that particular

was afraid of what

But I lowered my eyes and nodded, as I al

written the day

enough to hope otherwis

lways did--swift and cutting, li

practice swordsmanship, the one thing I loved above

e made certain I w

ac

are a

ac

IS your O

ac

meant to learn--an

sembled soldiers. Each one carved som

f the Sun Goddess afterward, blood soaking thro

ith eyes that held no mercy--as though

died in t

ation. I had thought--al

. Not out of love. Only

he doorway of my sickroom, looking at me the way one looks a

ame back a

e the architectur

s had implied--that a woman's only curren

walk, how to yield without resi

ptor uses a chisel: methodically, without ma

me once, her voice perfectly even. "It belo

deeply that I could barely f

the length of the great hall,

ld at least move through it with grace. Like

dmaiden at my side spoke

us put their shoulde

rolled through the corri

he smell r

ped me mid-breath--something wild and warm and inexplicably, distur

nce, some dormant instinct f

been trained to do. One step

l grew s

mosphere that pressed against m

he floor until I reached the dais, released m

Maje

whelming now. My k

, heavy and focused and burning, as though a

s voice carried throu

ted m

m almost immediately, drawn by something I couldn't resist, to the figure seated below the dais--o

ered in this room. Ever

he courage came from

The rest of him matched: a powerful frame barely contained by the dark fur-lined coat across his shoulder

out my breach of protocol

at I had already b

e man who h

ce

sn't

as a thought but as a certai

, too aware, too present in the way that predators were pres

ere

d sold me to

al enemy o

lowered voices and our historians described i

have swallow

did

slammed against my ribs--not in terror,

never once been

thing in my body recognized something in his and had simply decide

gh me was nothing like sh

as w

atched something shi

as I could remember, I felt so

lt a