5 Years Ago.
Clay came for me just before the sun climbed high enough to bleach the mist from the valley. I knew the sound of his footsteps, steady and certain, the way a man walks when he believes the world is already arranged in his favour. By the time he reached my door, I was no longer there.
I had excused myself when I saw Selene approaching, too. I felt they planned it and did not want to be caught unprepared.
Selene received him.
I lingered in the corridor, pressed against the cold stone wall, my breath shallow as I listened. The Council chamber lay just beyond the archway, its doors ajar. I had meant to enter with my head high, to walk beside Clay as his chosen mate, as the woman whose name already stirred unease among the elders. Fate, however, had other intentions. Or perhaps
