Bianca had been in love once. During her third year of academy, her class had gone on a tour of all the top English universities. At the University of Cambridge, their guide had been a charismatic computer science major who, at twenty-one, had seemed charming and sophisticated to her barely-seventeen-year-old mind. Robert Ferris was handsome, brash, and seemingly enamored with her, despite the awkwardness beneath her carefully cold exterior. His flatmate, Frank Hill, was equally handsome, reasonably interested in her, and the pair were already on their way to becoming a bonded pack. Neither came from much money, but they had lots of ambition and lofty aspirations. Bianca believed in them. She trusted them.
She spent the next year regretting that trust while she was mostly remanded to her bedroom, suffering through the ill effects of a broken bond. The plastic surgery she’d had to cover Robert’s claim mark wasn’t anywhere near as painful as the terrible ache in her chest, despite the fact that her fathers had insisted on doing the surgery immediately, rather than letting the mark fade as the bond dissolved. The doctors said it would hurt less if they waited and might not even be necessary with proper care and time, but her fathers refused to delay. Pack Bonnycastle couldn’t risk someone seeing the mark and learning of her disgrace. Besides, they probably wanted Bianca to hurt.
As if they’d needed to twist the knife any deeper. Bianca had never known such pain existed. She’d been completely alone in a depthless well of hopelessness and self-loathing. Her parents were too angry to speak toor even look at her, she had no friends of note, and nothing to hope for except the efficacy of her family’s reputation and an ironclad NDA to keep her secret shame hidden from public knowledge.
During the worst of the bond sickness, her brothers had appeared. Bianca didn’t attempt to get out of bed or open the blinds, and they didn’t try to make her. They’d silently set up a terrarium, then left her alone to stare at the little stone cave and the bits of driftwood inside. The next day, her middle brother, Frederick, returned to add lamps that automatically switched from a cool blueish white to warm red light at night.
Then Elliot, the eldest, brought in a tiny yellow snake.
By the time Michael returned a week later with a second, smaller tank and a baby mouse, Bianca had started getting up each day when Lilith’s lamp switched colors. She sat by the window, curtains finally open, and watched the strange little creature explore her new home. She listened without comment as Michael explained why she should feed the snake in a separate tank and then accepted the book he gave her on snake care.
Bianca didn’t know why her brothers had done it or even how much they knew about her situation. They were all so much older than she was, with Michael, Astrid’s youngest son, graduating academy soon after Bianca was born. They all had their own lives and interests, and hadn’t spent much time with their baby sister, who’d traveled the world young and spent most of her teenage years away at school. But the three of them had come together to give her Lilith, which might’ve saved her life.
Lilith’s cold scales soothed Bianca’s feverish skin as she suffered through endless chills and body aches. Even when she felt too weak and fatigued to get out of bed, she forced herself upright to change Lilith’s water and to spend time handling her, marveling at the strength and grace of her reptilian movements and getting the snake used to her touch.They sat together in her bedroom’s window seat, the snake basking in the sun while Bianca studied or read murder mysteries or plotted her escape. And as Lilith grew, Bianca rebuilt herself bit by bit, until she was every bit as strong and cold as her new pet. She finished her coursework virtually, graduated academy early, and regained enough of her parents’ trust for them to allow her to return abroad for university the following year, with Lilith in tow.
Since then, Bianca had kept her emotions contained and her expectations low. She made sure her goals aligned with her family’s desires enough to keep them satisfied and herself safe. She’d doneeverythingshe needed to do to get to this moment, when she’d mate and escape her parents, and go on to live her own life. She’d made sure that she’d be above reproach, finally able to gain comparative autonomy and with all the money and luxury she needed to amuse herself. And now, she was endangering it all, when she’d nearly reached the finish line.
“No, I’m not,” Bianca said aloud to the empty darkness of her bedroom. “I can’t. Iwon’t.”
She sat up in bed and reached for her phone, preparing to text her assistants and start her day, but stopped short. She already had a message from Callum.
Had a blast last night! Can’t wait for our shopping date on Wednesday. xx
Bianca groaned. She’d forgotten she’d agreed to see him again. That only gave her a few days to extricate herself from the situation and put Callum back where he should’ve been already—at arm’s length like everybody else.
She checked her other notifications, finding nothing of interest aside from a few message requests across her social media platforms. They wereall from the same, unfamiliar account. Probably spam. Bianca ignored them and Callum’s message, texting Amelia and Maude instead.
Coffee. Now.
Her assistants appeared within moments, with not just black coffee, but painkillers, ice water, and a protein shake. Bianca sipped and listened to them prattle on as she changed into her workout gear. She pretended not to smell the butterscotch and chocolate in the air, pretended she wasn’t excited that Daniel would be waiting for her in the gym.
She could always tell when he’d made her protein shake instead of Amelia or Maude. He’d include some superfluous touch her efficient assistants wouldn’t bother with (mostly because they knew Bianca would hate it), like a chocolate syrupBor fruit smiley face topping. Today he’d left her an origami rose that appeared to be folded from a Nocturne napkin. Cheeky git.
She was prepared to eviscerate him if he so much as mentioned anything about the previous night, but the big oaf was on his best behavior. They warmed up in silence, the giant alpha surprisingly light on his feet while they jumped rope and as he followed her lead through a vinyasa yoga sequence. Bianca was still on edge, frustrated with herself, and growing angrier the more she stewed on her thoughts. That familiar buzzing began in her head. She clenched her jaw.
“I’ve been thinking about your suggestion, and I talked to King and Dante about it,” Daniel said, his voice cutting through the static in a way only few things could. “They agree that adding self-defense classes would be the perfect expansion for King’s Guard, and that we could probably start as early as this fall! Can I practice on you a bit while we’re warming up?”
It took Bianca a moment to catch up with his words. She was already moving toward him, agreeing to whatever he was suggesting, before she’d processed his meaning. She stopped abruptly, gaping at him, then managed to smooth her expression into something less interested.
“You talked to your pack about my suggestion, and they agreed to try it?” Bianca paused to clear her throat. Surely, her lingering hangover was to blame for the stinging sensation behind her eyes. She blinked it away, turning her back on the big alpha under the guise of a final stretch, and gave a sarcastic laugh. “And now you want to use me as a guinea pig? I think I’m going to need to negotiate my role at King’s Guard soon, since I’m obviously good for business. I think I deserve a promotion.”
She looked over her shoulder and Daniel grinned at her, his brown eyes soft and sweet like his butterscotch and chocolate scent. Bianca should’ve been furious at him for looking at her that way, like she was someone who deserved softness, someone who could know tenderness. Shewasangry about it—the unfairness of that look and its power to undo every bit of the work she’d done to save herself, to take control of her life. She’d made the only choice possible for someone like her, and she’d accepted it with dignity.
Daniel looked at her like there was another option, another possibility. And that look was unforgivable. That look was ruinous.
“You don’t have to negotiate a thing, BB,” he promised, still grinning like a fool. “Your role with us is whatever you want it to be. You’ll never need a promotion. What’s higher than number one? Now let me show you how to escape a bear hug attack.”
Daniel didn’t give her time to think about what he’d said, distracting her immediately by demonstrating said attack. It involved wrapping his tree trunk arms around her from behind, enveloping her in his decadent candy scent. Bianca could only hope her moisture-wicking leggingscould withstand the rush of slick that undoubtedly soaked through her panties when he lifted her easily, his breath warm on her neck.
Thank the gods that the next steps in the lesson involved an opportunity to elbow him in the face, because Bianca had to do something with the tumultuous energy coursing through her body. Daniel seemed more than willing to oblige her, repeating the lesson again and again. A half hour later, she was completely exhausted, muscles screaming, and she hadn’t managed to escape him once.
But it had been damn satisfying to fight with all of her energy, all her anger, all her untamed ferocity. She didn’t have to hold back, to make herself small, to make herself perfect. He embraced it,enjoyedit even, the big stupid golden retriever.
It was exhilarating and terrifying and Bianca simply couldn’t handle it. She abruptly cut the workout short, needing to put some distance between them so that she could think without drowning in his sweet pheromones. She couldn’t help a final barb before she fled.
“You should also consider founding a charitable organization that provides internships and job placement support for veterans and former athletes. It fits your brand and there are tons of perks for small businesses who do that sort of thing.” Before the big idiot could give her those gooey eyes again, she scowled and turned away. “You can have that one for free, since there’s no way in hell you could actually afford me.”
She could hear him chuckling quietly as she made her escape.
