Back Where 261
I had felt her gaze before she rode out of the pack. It was almost as though her brother had calculated everything precisely, arranging it so I wouldn’t be able to speak with her. It worked.

Because only minutes after I arrived, she left in her carriage, riding away, and now I sat alone in the long meeting hall, wondering why Varyn Ashmere had summoned me, and why, though I had been here for over half an hour, he had yet to appear.

I sat for a long time, the silence pressing, then slowly looked around at the guards who stood like statues in every corner, armed and ready.

Ashmere guards. They were different from all others, both warriors and guards in one.

I swallowed hard as the truth hit me. At a single order, they might strike. Even as an Alpha, it would take a fight to escape alive.

I waited another hour, impatience gnawing at me, when the sound of footsteps came at last, true, steady, heavy. The doors swung wide, and he appeared, standing at the entrance. Bold. Dominant.

Varyn Ashmere, with a presence that made one go still with caution.