Lila
I’d been pacing in my rooms for nearly an hour, every step drilling further into my headache.
My thoughts looped like a bad song you couldn’t get out of your head: Damon’s claws. Alpha Rodrik on his knees. My father’s voice in the back of my mind demanding more and more from me.
“Three days. Or I pull you from the palace. Or I let your mother die.” He hadn’t said it like that, not exactly, but it was crystal clear whose obituaries he was referring to.
I knew how he worked. He didn’t raise his voice. He just waited until you were cornered and then told you it was your own fault. When he bothered to acknowledge my existence that is.
I pressed the heel of my hand into my chest, trying to quiet the sick twist in my stomach.
I had no leverage. No protection. No way out. Only an i
