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Sucking in a deep breath, I stepped under the loohtened vision, it was i out in the blackened corridors

Supernatural sight was a lot like night vision--there needed to be so to see I couldelse Just ht shadows

The vampire in me wanted to call out to her, to coax and tease her like a cat with a mouse But the olf in me won out She knew the proper way to hunt was to do so with silence and stealth To wait until you were certain no mistakes would be made, and then strike

There was no room for mistakes here

Every turn I rounded was a new opportunity for my heart to lurch into my throat Yet each time I found only ainst the thick walls of ivy, or whatever plant had been used for the hedge The sound was quiet, but louder than I would have liked A whisper when I was hoping for silence

It also ainst the wall, as I normally would have In order to stay as stealthy as possible I needed to walk down the center of the path, whereand sniffed the air

The scent of wet grass and bushes was overwhel It wasn’t like the pine forests I was used to back hoht itself smelled cold--there was no better way to describe it Crisp, fresh and so clean it almost hurt to breathe it, that’s how cold smells

My bare skin responded with a shiver

TheI shouldn’t have been surprised--this here the pack cah thefor…well, who knew But it made sense in a twisted, wolfy way One never knehen there’d be a tough spot to get out of Putting the pack through drills like that was so about Lucas h I had to be here, at his ho about how clever it was of hih their paces Our pack Was it even ours anyed I’d beco others ofLucas had been calling ours for so long

I’d believed I deserved to be their queen Or at the very least I’d earnedI could meet the pack on their level had er had to hide from them on full moons They wouldn’t questionto kill me because she would never believe I deserved the position ht it, even if she was the only one to act on it And ould the pack think of Lucas’s commitment to me now? Mated or not, he had scorned an had hatched? Had he blinded himself to her betrayal because he had other reasons to believe he could trust her?

I stopped walking and fought to catch my breath

Why would any man foolishly believe a woain? Love, sure…but that wasn’t how he’d gotten things pastlust It was how he’d activated thebefore the

Was that it? Was that how Morgan had ed to have her assassins find hway and at Callum’s compound in the south

I’d been an idiot not to suspect her before, but I trusted her because Lucas trusted her

Had she been the reason he stood me up too? Surely it benefited her to have et caught red-handed pulling the trigger I knew she wanted me dead so she could have her chance with Lucas

But ed

I didn’t want to believe it It didn’t see Lucas would be capable of I knew I hadn’t been virginal and innocent, but he’d known about ed it, to a point The soul-bondIt transcended simple lust He and Desht create conflict, but they also kneould be with the king in the end

I didn’t like having a polyamorous relationship, but I never lied about it Lucas knew I spent ht in bed with Deshts with Lucas None of us were thrilled about it It wasn’t like those happy-go-lucky e scenarios that cluttered up romance novels We always knew a time would come when three would be whittled down to two

But I’d never dreaht about it, thetoo ine Lucas as a villain given how he’d recently behaved When this was said and done and Morgan was in the ground, Lucas would answer for his actions

One thing was certain, though, even if he hadn’t cheated onmate ceremony None of it mattered now I didn’t care if the wolves didn’t do divorce, or that I was the queen as far as every olf on the East Coast was concerned I’d never be able to look at Lucas Rain the saain, and without trust a relationship wasn’t worth shit

I’d been still so long a thin filrass