Bethroted to the ruthless alpha

acks and targets that had clearly seen better days. A few Silver Moon warriors were already out the

this house. I was star

, holding a wooden practice sword like it was an extension of her own arm. "I'm

ld my own

vinced, and handed me a sword

re I could properly walk, and a bow not long after that. Crimson didn't have fancy war colleges or borrowed Frevnent steel, whatever

in her life. Ilsa sighed like she'd expected exactly that and started walking me through the bas

nding to struggle with my

han anything practical, hair pulled back but not a strand out of place. She surveyed the ya

or everyone to hear. "The Crimson bride

arriors laughe

ona went on, circling closer. "I suppose it's not

my voice small, my grip on the sw

ing? A match. Nothing serious - just enough to see what Silver Moon actually married into." She looked around

gh I should warn you, I reall

tone that made it clear she be

chen staff who'd wandered out to watch, and to my mild dismay, Scott, leaning against a fence

et her push me back a few steps, let the crowd murmur with the kind of s

eless in the way people get whe

en I stoppe

in Crimson's training yard until my arms shook and my hands blistered and healed and blistered again. I moved

. Her sword hit the dirt, an

d, snatching the sword back u

"Let's go again,

tch, sweat had soaked through her collar and her careful hair had come loose from its pins, and the crowd tha

ath, the same math I'd watched Parker do at dinner

he said, breathing hard. "Let'

hout warning,

ping over skin, until a brown wolf stood where Phiona had been a second

one knew it. A duel of wolves meant something different th

beneath the surface of everything I was. I could have let it out. Some small, furious part of me

to sound only when he was truly afraid. No matter what happens, Eve

back then. I only knew that fear

chin tip down, my whole posture arrange itself into someth

h for today," I said,

breathing hard but victorious

d lost before finally reaching for the one advantage she thought I couldn'

needed to grow claws just to feel better about yo

me. Phiona's face went red, and she turned on her heel and stalked off withou

l grinning, and fell into step beside

ith a stick, like you said

know what

han his usual teasing in his eyes now. "You didn't shift, though

efully blank. "I d

r later, the same way Parker had filed away everything about me at dinner. "Well. However you did it, you made

said, an

my chest - the memory of my father's voice, the pull I'd swal

I so afraid of ev