CLAIMING HAILEY

IL

ugged at my arms, heavy with the scent of detergent, damp fabric, and bleach that clung to my skin. It was as if the building lived and breathed thro

of scrubbing floors, folding linens, and tending to tasks nobody else would touch. It wasn't just work; it

er arrival, and now she was here-Thomas's chosen mate, his perfect, noble-born match. She was everything I wasn't: beautiful, powerful, and utterly ruthless. The only child

takeover. Her coldness oozed out and crept into even the very edges of the pack, and somehow I was just her target being the rejected one didn't seem to appease her,

breath with the razorlike silence,

ile

I could already tell how this was going to go. I turned slowly to face her, standing at the far end of the hall

bowing my head in submission

t call me that," she snapped. "You're not o

es, Marissa." I fold

rture me. She stopped before me, only a few inches separating us, and her

her tone smooth and cruel. "Hailey Q

tched the basket tighter, digging my fingers into the fabric as I stared

t Thomas will come back to you?" Her laughter then came s

f to say nothing then changed my

use he's mine now. And I don't ever want to

I mut

oice was as cold a

ugh gritted teeth, my cheek

eached out and patted my cheek, her touch mocking. "Go

aving me to follow after. My legs felt like lead as

ike ghosts, and the smell of wine that had been spilt sometime in the air. It w

at the chaos. "And hand-wash the tablecloth.

sting of my nails grounding me a

g me with a smile that was more predator

leaning-it was about survival. I couldn't afford to break, not here, not now there's still so much to do. Amenia is bristling around inside me, and it has taken almost all my strength t

uninspected slow, deliberate stare running a perf

someone like you," she said,

of my cheek and k

cold words: "Don't forget-you're no

aled, a slow and steady breath as she began to walk away from me, he

d break me. But they never got to def

in, soft and gold. It reached deep inside me and touched that s

ne day they'll see, then they