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"God, was there like a newsletter?"

"Wolves are a small community, Secret Gossip travels fast"

"So it seeetting into Can you believe that?"

"I knohat life I’ into"

"I don’t think you do" He leaned back, and the leather chair creaked under his weight "Will you hu you a story?"

"Why? Do you know any old nored me, which was probably best for both of us, and went on "When I was a very youngafter I akened, there was a wo and willful, not unlike yourself She fought against her king and her pack every step of the way, believing the rules of conformity shouldn’t apply to her She felt she was too special to be bound by a hundred generations of tradition"

"In other words, she was a teenager"

Calluirl fell in love, as girls of her age are wont to do Girls of any age, really We are all ruled by love, Secret, make no mistake of it Love will

"The boy she loved was a good kid Polite, charreat deal I’, but I’h a twist of fate, she found herself pregnant at only seventeen years old"

My blood went cold

"The boy wanted to take care of her, but…died tragically"

Yeah, I bet he did Having a hole chewed in your neck by a vaedy I continued to sit in silence Any urge to interrupt had vanished when he’d told e I just wanted hione, we believed she would reater than the loss she felt for her man He was human, after all, and he was destined to die before her and she knew it But ti rong"

"With the child?" Shit Shut up, Secret

"No, with her rief over her loss had driven her past the point of consolation She believed the child was an aboirl" He sthat made her who she was His death broke her, and she never fit together again"

"I’m not my mother," I whispered

"No I could have told you that, er than Mercy ever was Your identity is not entwined with your love for the king, that’s as plain as day"

"Then why did you need to tellLucas for the right reasons I want you to think about what you’re doing This is soe once it’s done"

"I’m prepared The mate bond has already been activated"

"Yes"

"I didn’t , and it won’t break me"

"It le What if you are not the girl? What if you are the dead boy and the fractures you are creating are destroying someone else?"

Callum could have reached his hand inside my mouth and squeezed my heart to pulp with his bare hands and it would have madeabout?" I was barely able to wheeze out the sentence

"I don’t think you should marry Lucas because I don’t think he’s the one you’reLucas’s na Everyone has said it’s perfect I’m royalty, so is he I’m pack protector We’re soul-bonded, and now our mate bond is active I’ve proven I deserve to be his wife"

"I’ whether or not you deserve it You do deserve to be at the head of a pack I know all about how you dispatched Marcus Sullivan I know, too, you were forced to fight your own mother in the end, asether and rested the forty Fat olves didn’t exist "You are Alpha ainst the swell of pride that grew larger inuitar He’d found a weakness I hadn’t known I had, and he was poking at it until it was raw

"I don’t understand your problem then"

"You won’t be the Alpha anymore if you marry hih "Callu to be honest with you if I can"

"Please"

"You think you know rapevine has told you We’re family, and I respect you think that means you knohat’s best for me I can al about uided destiny the Fates have chosen for"If it’sOnly I decide"

And I would have to decide Calliope had told , I couldn’t escape the decision I had thought choosing to marry Lucas had made the choice for me, but I was still deeply entrenched inas I had a foot in each world, my choice would reh, and eventually it would come back down and I would knoolf or vampire I couldn’t be both forever

"I like you," Callus would have been very different for you if Vivienne hadn’t taken you from us"