The Alliance of Wolves

lara stood motionless in front of her bedroom door, her fingers clutching the hems of her dressing gown, trying to steady herself wit

ncee. A title that, on the surface, seemed to give her status, but in

But there was something more distressing than the loneliness that settled in that room: it was the mere p

opened

tuations. Clara felt a wave of frustration take hold of her. She wasn't sure what she hated more about him: his unwavering authority, or that i

a calm voice, not betraying the worry she knew l

ut she stopped before she could say a word. The air was too heavy,

ir, her gaze lost in the darkness beyond the window. The room was large, tastefully decorated, but it lacked any warmth. It was as if the house itself refu

ity, "I'm not an easy man to live with. This marriage, it's strategi

eyes scanned the darkness through the curtains, as if looking for

an almost invisible smirk. "I'm not marrying you because I admire you, not because I

walking to the window and leaning forward a little, searching for something in the darkness arou

love? Then why would y

it afterwards, but there was no more room for unsaid words. She needed to know. She nee

fixed on her back, her silhouette silhou

o strengthen my pack. And you have to understand that the surviv

s ice. "So all this is just a way for you to c

n Elias' lips. "It's not tha

him that this was all a farce, that he didn't know what love was, what true loyalty was. But she knew that anything she said would

to this?" he finally asked, as if

n, to escape, but there was this heavy responsibility to her family, to her father, and to this insurmountable debt that weigh

no choice," sh

n said, but nothing seemed to have lightened for all that.

silence, Elias spoke again, in a l

my position of forces. But I'm beginning to realize that you

, one she hadn't seen in him before. He was no longer the distant, cold, calculating man he had b

words heavier this time. "Perhaps more than you thin

her. Was he giving her a form of respect she hadn't earned, or was this another st

coming more complex, more difficult to understand. And, in a way she couldn't underst