/1/129501/coverbig.jpg?v=ee8fa23fd40dd67801c73c75e35a04fd&imageMogr2/format/webp)
o see again after
es than she could count. Now she sat still, palms s
ug, light flo
e room swam into focus. White walls. Ins
el to see again
. "Like I've been drowning, and
something into his tablet. "The
rframes. Counting steps. Learning people by their scen
so happy to see
r. Ward. Than
ok. "I did this as a favor to someone. If I h
ugh her chest. "He really we
r. Something careful in it. A little sad,
inly been very... inves
y with joy to ca
et and found the small velvet box. A r
heir house, get down on one knee, a
s promised. Then Stella Moore, Victor's childhood friend and admirer, had gott
nly the elders had gotten her out of the country in time. Then Victor spent the whole year making it up to Ava, chasi
ng to one thing: whatever else
ry failed, she'd reject him herself, so he'd
nd surely that was the Moon
dark glasses, planning to save the news of her sig
e door open, and stepped in
e stopp
d a handbag sat by the
n, clear and unmistakable, and the d
the stairs on trembling legs and s
purred, "fuck me hard,
ever forget
la M
linded her. And from the lazy familiarity
ext sixty seconds, was the smalles
fted through the gap. "Your li
I have never marked her. S
sical price, a sharp, tearing pain through the bond. Victor had
sharpened beneath the sweetness. "
rl if I didn't have to? I've spent a year playing n
ay, Ava went
igh and thin, like a wire pulled too tight. She
eepless nights, the way he'd held her when she'd sobbed
the whole time, we
und for what?" Stell
is voice cooled, businesslike. "The Moon Goddess handed me a wolfless mate and called it destiny. I have ne
h stopped i
pressed. "Y
ally. She will reject me first, out of some noble little urge to set me free, and everyone will weep for the tragic Alpha wh
rt shatter into
d have made her rejection the last, kind
r that gift like a knife he'd
. She'd carried it all the way ho
tella's voice
im." The bed creaked as he shifted. "If I'm mated and married when the
, blind l
far away. She'll cry, she'll get over it." He
ye
day of
s. When she opened them, the ringing was
ly what she wa
othed her face into the blank, lost look she'd
pushed
nd searching. "Victor, are you hom
econd, pu
chest. Victor shot upright, gra
eiling. She tapped her cane against the doorf
ly, they r
ldn't s
ly motioned at Stella to keep quiet, and his whole tone changed, slidi
ack from the hospital alone? Do you know how dangerous that
really were blind, she'd
slow, lazy, unbothered. Then she crossed to Victor's side,
Ava the w
tightened o
front of her, tapping the floor like she
hand rising to her templ
as she lost her balance, and ca
stumbled back, han
e pitched forward, stra
ed, groping in the air.
of Stella's sobbing, tilted her head, and let t
ere someone else
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