E


    The morning light streaming through the bedroom windows was too bright, and my head was pounding worse than any hangover. I blinked slowly, trying to remember what had happened. Slowly, far too slowly, it all came back to me.


    The charity auction, Sophia destroying Lilith’s locket, the bracelet Alexander had given me, returning home…


    And then the moment that everything had gone ck.


    I tried to sit up, wincing as my body protested. Every muscle ached, and there was a dull throb behind my eyes that made me want to crawl back under the covers and sleep for another week.


    “You’re awake.”


    I turned toward the voice and found Gabriel sitting in the chair beside the bed, his arms crossed and that familiar disapproving expression on his face. Not exactly the person I’d been hoping to see when I first woke up.


    “Where’s Alexander?” I asked, my voiceing out as a croak. I reached up to touch the bandage on the side of my head where I had hit the tiles and winced as ance of pain shot through me.


    “He had to leave this morning. Trade dispute with a neighboring pack. He’ll be gone for a few days.”


    The disappointment hit me harder than I expected it to. Deep down, I’d been hoping Alexander would be here when I woke up. Maybe sitting beside the bed like he had in the hospital, maybe even looking worried about me. But of course he wasn’t. Of course he’d found something more important to do.


    “Oh,” I managed. “Right.”


    Gabriel leaned forward, and something in his expression made my blood run cold. There was something dark and predatory there, like a wolf licking its chops before it went in for the kill.” E, everyone knows now.”


    I stiffened. “Knows what?”


    “Don’t y dumb. We all know about your so-called ‘condition’.” He maid air quotes with his fingers like the condition didn’t really exist. “Your little secret is out. Did you really think you could hide it forever, or did you hope we would all find out so you could finally get what you’ve always wanted?”


    My heart jolted. No. No, no, no. No one was supposed to know about it. I had begged the doctor to keep it a secret. All I wanted was to get through the next few months and have Alexander


    reject me when it was all over. “Who told you?” I breathed.


    “Does it matter? The point is, now we all know how weak and pathetic you really are.” Gabriel stood up, his figure blotting out the morning sunlight and turning him into nothing but a silhouette as he loomed over me. “Alexander was right about you all along.”


    “What do you mean?”


    his


    “He told me you’d try anything to manipte him. Even faking an illness to get attention.” Gabriel’s eyes glittered with malice. “He said you were desperate and weak, and that he’d never mark someone like you.”


    The words felt like individual knives in my heart, twisting and stabbing over and over. Alexander had said that? He’d called me desperate and weak? He still didn’t believe me, even after everything?


    “That’s not-I wasn’t faking anything,” I whispered.


    “How convenient that you suddenly develop this mysterious illness right when your marriage is failing. How convenient that the only cure is Alexander’s mark.” Gabriel shook his head. ” He saw right through you, E. He knows exactly what kind of person you are.”


    My chest felt tight, like I couldn’t get enough air, like I was fucking drowning. Had Alexander really said those things about me? Was he really so… cruel?


    “He won’t mark you,” Gabriel went on, tilting his head. “He made that very clear. You’ll have to wait for the divorce like the contract says. A contract is a contract, after all.”


    “But I’ll die,” I choked out.


    “Yeah, right. We all know you’re full of shit.”


    I stared up at Gabriel, anger warring with the hurt and confusion in my gut. I wanted to use my Luna Voice, perhaps make him grovel at my feet for the way he was speaking to me… But the pain just outweighed the fury.


    “Get out,” I said quietly.


    “Excuse me?”


    Chapter Ha