Chapter One
STERLING
It’s not until I hear Wilder and my daughter Maddy’s voices outside in the garden that I sit up and try to get out of bed. I’ve got a little time on my own, so I should use it.
My legs aren’t very strong both from exhaustions and being in heat, but that doesn’t matter, the bathroom isn’t very far. I grab the doorknob and keep holding onto it until my head stops swimming.
Exhaustion, on multiple levels, is not a way to treat my body, especially not when I’m weak from being in heat. My clothes are still on the floor where I left them last night.
Last night…
I check myself in the mirror, reaching up with one hand and running my fingers over the new mark, the mark that Wilder left on the back where my shoulder and my neck meet. It’s still tender, and I can feel where
