Bethroted to the ruthless alpha

ho nodded at me like I was a decision he hadn't finished making yet. Phiona left without looking at me at all, her heels clicking hard against the stone floor, like she wanted the whole

st the floor to keep pace with him. "You killed the person I loved. You married me because it was convenient for everyone but me. Your family looks at me like I'm something that got tracked in on someone's boots. So no, Raulph, we are very much not clear." He didn't answer right away. We kept walking, past more doors, more portraits, more of this house that wasn't mine and never would be, no matter how many rooms it had. When he finally spoke, his voice was quieter than before. "I never said this was easy for either of us." "You didn't say much of anything," I said. "That's kind of the problem. You want me to just accept all this - the wedding, the family, the way your brother looks at me like I'm a bug he hasn't decided whether to squash - and you won't even talk to me." "What do you want me to say?" "I don't know. Something. Anything that isn't three words and a closed door." He didn't answer that either. I decided I hated the silence more than I hated anything he could have actually said. We reached a set of double doors near the end of the hall, carved dark wood with a silver crescent moon worked into the center. He pushed them open, and I realized this was it - my new room. Our room, probably, though the thought made my stomach twist in a way I didn't want to look at too closely. "This is you," he said. I stepped inside. The room was bigger than my entire home back in Crimson - bigger than the house I'd grown up in, bigger than the house Raphael and I used to talk about building someday, back when someday still felt like something we were allowed to have. There was a huge bed with dark covers, tall windows looking out over land that belonged to a family that didn't want me, and a fireplace already lit, like someone had known I was coming and prepared for it without asking what I actually wanted. It didn't feel like mine at all. It felt like a very expensive cage. "Raulph." I turned back before he could leave. He stopped in the doorway