THE RAW CONFESSION of Waldemar’s past, the searing pain of his brother’s death, had left Selene reeling. It didn't erase her captivity, nor the violation of the Moonbind, but it layered a disturbing empathy over her hatred. She saw now the desperate man beneath the demanding Alpha, burdened by inherited duty and personal grief. Her feelings were a tangled knot of resentment, fear, and a reluctant understanding that complicated her every thought. The intimate 'punishment' still resonated, a constant flush of shame mixed with a traitorous physical awareness of Waldemar that made her skin prickle whenever he was near.
The precarious balance of their volatile truce was shattered two days later, not by an argument, nor by Waldemar’s relentless 'lessons,' but by the unannounced arrival of a new
