More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Everyone. Has. Weaknesses,” I hiss.
“You’re right,”
“But we are selective about
whom we show those truths to. ...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
“—you do not touch an Alpha that way!” Stark’s chest is heaving. Cratos isn’t beside him, but he doesn’t need his wolf’s sheer size to threaten Jonah.
“You are a powerful Rawbond, but strength is not the only thing we value in Daemos. You’d do well to remember that if you want to make it through the rest of Proving. And in case my implication is not crystal fucking clear: You touch her again and I’ll cull you myself.”
This has become our ritual. Stark beats me up, Killian stitches me back together again. It’s made the whole process a lot easier, knowing Killian will be here to soothe me after Stark’s lessons.
The castle has secrets I’ll probably never uncover.
“You’re going to have to put
me down if you want to stop me,”
“You’re not going alone,” he grates out. “I’m coming with you.”
“If you’re going to be reckless, princess, at least let me keep you alive.”
“The only thing I believe in with any certainty is death. It comes for us all.”
“Who did this to you?”
“What the hell do you care?” I snap with acrid sarcasm. “Are you going to protect me?”
“I know the marks of torture when I see them,” he growls. “Tell me who hurt you. Was it him? Your”—he pauses, sneering the word with poisonous contempt—“prince?”
“Don’t you dare even talk about him. And no, he fucking didn’t. I did.”
“You did that to yourself?” he repeats tightly. “Yes,”
That’s the only way to ensure Siphons die; you need to behead them.
Anassa’s approval envelops me. She’s proud of my brutality. All I feel is hollow.
“But my family…” “Let me be your family now,”
“Killian?” I hear myself whisper.
“Let me take care of you, now and forever,”
“You don’t always have to be the strong one. Let me help you. I—” He clears his throat. “I meant to do this after you’d graduated from the Trials, Meryn, but you need to know you aren’t alone in this world. I talked to your mother about this, you know.”
“You aren’t alone,” Anassa growls across the bond...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
“She gave me her blessing,” Killian continues. “Let me be strong for you, Meryn...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
“Be my queen,” Killian implores softly. “Rule at my side and help me reshape our world, Meryn. Together we’ll make the world safer for people like your mother. We’ll get Saela back.
We’ll make things right.”
“Meryn,” she hisses. “You are not in the right place to make this decision.”
“Yes,” I breathe.
Nocturna is millennia older than we’ve been told. And the direwolves were a central part of the Sturmfrost line’s rule. They’ve always been our allies.
This is the crown of the Sturmfrost line, forged thousands of years ago and imbued with powerful magic.
Why is my direwolf colluding with Stark?!
“No packs broke their mental unity throughout the entire Trial. Congratulations, Rawbonds. Those who survived will officially become Bonded at tomorrow’s graduation ceremony.” Those who survived.
“Actually, the crown is very much my business, since my family are their sworn protectors,”
“He betrayed the kingdom first. He betrayed me. He took your family, Meryn. Whatever it takes, we will stop him, free the children, and end this nightmare. I swear it to you.”
“It will work. Tomorrow, you’ll get your sister back. Tomorrow, we’ll make my father pay. Tomorrow, the throne is ours.”
“FUCK the king!” I bellow through the pack unity.
“You realize this is why I put my trust in him over you? You’re supposed to be my partner! My direwolf. My Bonded. But you can’t even be honest with me. All this time, and you haven’t even told me who your mate is or let me in on your connection with them at all! Don’t you realize how lonely that makes me feel?”
“Trust goes two ways, Meryn.”
“You say I have given you nothing. What have you given me?” She stares just the same, patient and knowing. “You demand I show you my mate in the light, yet you hide away with your prince in the dark.”
“You may not trust me fully, but I cannot trust you, either. This is why I kept my mate a secret. I could never be certain that you would not have taken his name to the prince.”
“Regardless, it has benefited us. He has not thought to ward us agains...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
“Yes. Anassa, I order you to tell your mate where the crown is. I order your mate to get the crown and bring it here, to us.”
“It’s done.”
And then Stark walks around the corner. I stare unblinking, struggling to understand why he’s here, what he’s doing, why he’s looking at me like that. Anassa rises within the cell, padding toward the enormous shifting shadow that is Cratos. The instant she’s near him, her entire demeanor changes.
Anassa presses her nose to the metal, and Cratos steps forward to touch his nose to hers, his sides expanding as he takes a deep breath.
Her true feelings about Cratos are earth-shattering. The intensity of Anassa’s desire for her mate crushes the air from my lungs and sends slow, addictive heat through every inch of me. Her longing crackles across the channel of energy between us and seeps into my blood.
“You,” I growl, hands in fists. All this time, it was Stark.
The stone is the twin of the one in the necklace my mother gave me, glinting with the same age-old luster.
