I found myself inching up onto the windowsill. Yearning to come out. I balanced on my paws, teetering precariously. I looked down and assessed the drop from my chambers. Growling faintly in growing aggravation as I dropped back inside. Pacing further. I paced until I was so exhausted that I laid down and fell asleep on the cool floor. My head rested on my paws. When I awoke this time, I was a naked woman on the floor of my chamber, my head on the back of my hands. As I lifted it, I found what had awakened me. A maid had cracked my door and now stared at me in astonishment. “Get out!” I shouted at her. Enraged that she would intrude. I saw two knights peering through the crack in the door behind her. Glimpsing my bare backside and legs. “I said, get out!” She fumbled to set down a platter of food on a table near the door before sliding back out and pulling the door closed. I stood. Pulling on a loose, flowing gown. I couldn’t re

They’d barely declared my sweet old king dead. And all my fears were running rampant. I worried that perhaps this was what the NightHunter wolf had been waiting for. What if he’s going to return now? But it was the same fear I’d had every night since the beast had left. My long skirts swished around my legs as I paced my chambers. I was locked inside it, and still found myself watching the door fearfully. But the footstep I heard at the bottom of the stairs was one I knew. Not him either. Don’t come up here. Don’t come up here. I had one hand cradling my tossing stomach. I was chewing on the thumbnail of the other hand. All my willing was inundated by the hammering of an armored fist on the large wooden door. Alaric. He’s come for me. Thinking he can claim me, unchallenged, now that my King is dead. “Go away!” “Unlikely.” He scoffed. Bangin

“Stop!” I yanked the door open. “Before you summon the household!” He walked in. Forcing me to back up. He kicked the door closed behind him. Making my stomach sink. What’s he going to do? What if all those tiny kindnesses were just to get close enough to drag me back? Always my mind went back to my fear of the Asara Pack. But a subconscious part of me knew that peeling Alaric from that pack was a nearly impossible feat. Despite all my recent hopes. I was now far more reserved. Less confident. And my King is no longer here to protect me. That made my heart ache. Not only for myself but for missing him. The world is less of a place without him in it. Alaric took a menacing step toward me. Forcing me back to the present with striking clarity. Shit. Looking at him I could see purpose written all over him. Determination turning his blue eyes flinted silver. “Tell me wh

Alaric eventually shook all of my guards off him like nuisance raindrops. Tossing them in a scatter over the floor. Making them slowly retreat as they eyed him as if he were someone foreign. Realizing that he was inhumanly strong. Even more powerful under the Mating Moon. Stronger, fiercer. “What are you?” One murmured. “He can’t be human.” The one that had tried to hold him said. In the chaos, I fled past him. Determined to find an escape. I looked furtively down the hall. Trying to find a safe direction to retreat. And hide throughout the Mating Moon. But I’d need somewhere that would disguise my scent. If that’s even possible. Alaric was an impressive wolf. And as the next potential Alpha, he’d been born with increased strength and senses. He can smell better than me. Better than most wolves. Which made him even more difficult to hide from.