“So it’s serious,” Izabel says, contemplative. “It’s not just a Bonding Trials fling.”
“It’s serious,” I confirm.
Suddenly, there’s a stirring on the other end of my bond.“Prepare yourself,”Anassa commands.
“For what?”I reply, surprised to hear her voice after the silent treatment she’s been serving me.
The door to the Kryptos anteroom bangs open, hitting the wall. A liveried messenger enters and she sighs in relief when she spots me.
“Rawbond Meryn Cooper?” the messenger asks.
“Yes?” I say, looking around in confusion.“What is this?”I ask Anassa, but there’s no reply.
“You are being summoned to see Sovereign Alpha Siegrid. Immediately.”
My mind sinks into a vat of cold, devouring dread. Egith’s warning returns to me.
The only reason the Sovereign Alpha could want to see me is if I’m going to be punished—orkilled—for shutting out my fellow Rawbonds.
Izabel looks worried—a good sign for our friendship, if not for my overall health—when I rise. I bid the twins a quick goodbye, then follow the messenger out of the anteroom and out of the common lounge.
The walk to the audience chamber is endless, winding down echoing halls in complete silence. Questions almost burst from my lips multiple times, but I doubt this messenger will be able to answer them, anyway.
Igor would tell me that I’ve made my bed and now have to lie in it, but this bed feels like it’s all just…spikes. Everywhere.
We turn one corner and there’s Anassa, waiting regally for me, looking slightly bored.
“What are you doing here?”I ask her.
“We have business to attend to,”she replies. Helpful, Anassa, thank you.
Anassa’s tail swishes as we delve further into the castle. The halls get more elaborate as we draw closer to the royal side, the curtains woven with golden thread, the wall sconces covered in diamond-like glass shades. There are even long, thick tongues of blood-red carpet here rather than bare, polished stone, a rarity on this side of the castle because the wolves’ claws could shred right through them.
Though we haven’t crossed into the royal wings, it’s clear that the Sovereign Alpha enjoys certain luxuries for her position.
Anassa’s tail swishes again, brushing my arm. I look up at her, surprised. She doesn’t bother looking back at me, but I swear that brief contact was meant to reassure me.
The messenger stops abruptly in front of a massive wooden door. The door knockers are two iron wolves baring their teeth, each biting a heavy metal ring. The messenger reaches up and takes hold of one of those rings, lifting it and bringing it back against the door twice.
The menacing thuds reverberate in my ears. I blink to keep my eyes from watering.
A moment later, the doors before us groan open, revealing a large, sparsely furnished room. A few Bonded soldiers and their wolves line the walls. The space is well-lit, with oil lamps and apair of large braziers atop a slightly raised stone dais. Atop that dais, there’s a long table with high-backed chairs. At the end of it, a chair even taller than the rest.
Standing before it is a woman whose presence makes me feel like gravity has tripled.
She’s incredibly tall and well-built, brown skin covered in scars and kill marks, but her presence takes over the space around her, expanding beyond the boundaries of her body. Her power seeps from her pores and spreads through the room with her every breath.
Anassa steps inside, and I force my legs to follow. As we draw closer, Sovereign Alpha Siegrid Therion straightens from where she was leaning over the table. An instinct thrumming in my blood urges my eyes to follow her every movement, every twitch of her muscles and every analyzing sweep of her eyes demanding my attention.
She’s older than I expected, I realize. In her mid-fifties, maybe, with graying brown hair that has a blood-red streak. Her age doesn’t diminish her physical prowess. If anything, it sharpens the unspoken threat in her gaze.
If Anassa’s taught me anything, it’s that age and experience only makes a wolf more dangerous.
Siegrid turns towards us, crossing her arms over her chest. They’re as heavily tattooed as her son’s. Looking at her, a warning similar to the one I heard the first time I looked at Stark sounds in my mind.
Dangerous, instinct screams at me, louder than it ever has before.
Her wolf sits beside her. Massive and black as night. It makes even Anassa look small. Siegrid reaches up and touches her wolf’s leg before stepping forward. She looks right past me and inclines her head.
