e Bent
ten suffocating seconds before it rece
ntal transmissions during coordinated SWAT raids, but this was entirely differen
pered, my voice shaking
gone, replaced by a dark, calculatin
ping an octave. "Hilbert hasn't harmed them yet.
g about? He wants the commercial transit
lpha like Hilbert-a man who controls the western shipping ports-w
over. "We have nothing! My family has four thousand dollars in checking an
s you, C
e sent a violent shiver down my spin
beast. I can't shift. I can't pass on an Alpha gene. To
ights, casting me entirely in his shadow. The scent of frozen ce
triking like an iron mallet. "You are the sol
n the pressurize
just a name. My biological parents abandoned me on a church
Benton royal territory was fractured by civil war, your father sent you into the human wards to keep you breathing. Th
d wildly against
the sole surviving daughter of the Benton bloodline grants his family legal claim to over ten thousand square miles of ancestral nort
vacuated
it six months ago, Beaulah's false smiles, the rushed engage
me. They had been
t as a broken rasp. "Now th
and they will use them to force you into a blood contract before the regional councils disco
e like an avalanche. I wasn't just a discarded fiancée; I
p into his glacial eyes. "Why do you
dn't
ed through towering, ancient evergreens. Ahead, illuminated by blinding halogen floodlights, st
assault rifles. The moment our vehicle approached, they snapped to attention, their fists cross
age's thugs. These were elite pack warriors-h
ung open wit
tree-lined avenue for two miles until the for
of dark stone and reinforced steel. It looked like an ancient f
egendary seat of power
beneath the grand portico. Burdell
as the mountain wind whipped his dark wool coat, his presence do
icle, looking down at me
este," he com
the driveway, the contrast between my ripped gown and t
l uniforms stepped out of the heavy
it to Burdell without breaking stride
rdered, his tone brisk and clinical. "Clean the woun
head maid answered
sweeping staircase in the f
voice bouncing off
slightly to look down at me over his broad sho
emanded, gripping the banister. "You said
me for three ago
m ready,"
into the shadows of the upper corridor, leavin
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