lia

wed the whole sho

he carriage door, and I watched his face drain - the smirk

ctually stumbled back a step, drop

aist-deep in the shallows - alive, dripping, staring straight at her - the innocent

d her feathered fan in the mud. "How does a wolfles

rift across every stunned aristocrat, cold enough to

what pride always

t drown, so drag yourself out this instant! Do you have any idea what

man who had watched m

atitude as I once would have, I treaded water

e lake like a sharp blade. "Lord Tate, my name is

mid wolfless orphan, insulting the

ed on the silver hilt of his broadswor

e like an actress hearing her cue. "The freezing cold must have damaged her mind! Aurelia,

almost lau

the betrothed who watched me sink beneath the waves without lifting a f

ntimacy on that bank had gone far beyond what cous

back as if the touch burned. "Aurelia! How can y

dive back down and fetch the torn silk caught under your

hands flew b

told forty witnesses ever

through his boots. But men like him never pa

e bellowed over the rising murmur. "Guards! Subdue th

ds started unbuckling t

lake, to the opposite bank. Beyond a towering black-iron fence lay the royal restricted grounds, and behind

arned who sat in that

oded Lycan who held more absolute power than the Alpha King himsel

dger would never, e

n clicked together in

the eye, slowly raised my ri

a single, gracef

lief. Somewhere in the crowd,

led my lun

No mercy.

water, toward the forbidden imperial pavilion and Jacoby-while