The Wolf's Bride

silence pressing down on me. Not the hush of luxury, not the lul

o chandelier, no soft lighting, just a slit of pale gray light slipping through a high, barred window like a reluctant ghost.

my head throbbed like a bruise. Whatever they used to knock me out hadn't quite let go. The room was spare. Stark. No paintin

a. Wa

e me more vulnerable than the stone walls already had. I scanned the room, no vents

g light across the walls. The floors were smooth, worn. Not new construct

rd, the stone b

I hea

tst

Heavy. D

ead, and the

all, dressed in black, all motion with no wasted movement. His eyes were silver. Not

en V

fr

did

rom me, the air betwe

home, Miss Mo

oment before it, when the wind drops, and you

But the look in his eyes wasn't one you met with

him silenc

died. His stare stripped away pretense, beauty, dignity, everything. I

tions," he sai

nswers,"

't blin

wed. "Wh

te. Carp

ern E

es

how l

ve ho

drugg

d, with a voice that left no r

h dropped

tight through my spine. I could smell him now, like cold l

said. "He broke a blood pact.

ink I'm

his head,

not a hostage, Valeria.

y skin burned, my lungs stilled, an

slow. Intentional. No

ou start act

ed away without wa

ike that,

ve alight, every inch of me vibrating with confusi

nd me, not because I thought it would do anything,

t lock. Of cou

't imp

aged in

ery. Steam long gone. Next to it, a single orchid, whit

d slapped the tr

d. Food splattered

e wreckage, b

n inher

d the worst part was, I had no ide

keypad. Anything that would connect me to the wo

I s

he p

Inked

earn what betrayal

it in

was fury. The slow kind. The kind that

the armoire cau

ooked like something raw. Something that hadn't found it

mera b

ned t

him

e of defiance still cr

ed my fingertips against the

now me yet,"

turned,

ght blinke

ar, he wa

was s