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My pulse had been thundering in my veins, a snarl building in my throat. My mind couldn’t catch up to the anger racing through me, and something inside of me stretched far too thin—and snapped.

All I knew was anger.

How dare she? How fucking dare she tear me away from the first moment of peace I’d known in years?

I’d been shaking, my breath coming out in ragged pants.

“Why?” I demanded. “Why did you just do that?”

She’d blinked, and for half a second, had seemed confused. That confusion quickly turned to shock. That I would dare question her?

I suppose I had been a little shocked, too. Not because I questioned her, but because my first instinct had been to give in to my anger. To fight back.

Lenora isn’t an Alpha. There’s no threat of a bark she could use to subdue me. No weight of a command to force me to my knees.

I hadn’t felt small at that moment. I felt larger than her—even if it was only the size of my anger.

My fury rose too quickly to pull it back, and I hadn’t wanted to.

She’d just knelt there, crouched over my injured body with that blank look on her face, like she hadn’t just ripped me away from my mate.

There was something inside of me that had been caged for too long. It had been beating against my insides for months, years maybe, begging to be let out. As she’d stared at me with that emotionless mask, I’d felt it crack open, and I’d screamed.

“Tell me why!”

My hands slammed to the hard stone floor, and a snarl ripped up my throat. It was broken and raw and angry. My chest was heaving, my hair a tangled mess around my face, strands of it escaping my braid and getting caught in my mouth as I panted.

I’d been with Caelan. He’d been holding me, and I’d felt so free… so happy. I’d been safe.

I’d been safe.

And then I was yanked back… shoved back into my body with all the force of a toddler cramming a square block in a round peg. It had been disorienting and almost violent in its intensity.

I’d opened my eyes, and I’d been back here, in this godforsaken attic.

This cell.

And she didn’t even care.

I thought she’d yell back or scold me, but she’d simply risen from her crouch, smoothed her hands down her scrubs, and tilted her head to the side like an inquisitive bird.

“You know why, Omega,” she eventually replied. Perfectly calm. Not like when Vae or Daxen called me by my designation, and it sounded like a curse.

Lenora said it as though that was all I was. Just an Omega. Another worthless girl whose feelings didn’t really matter. A girl whose whole identity was wrapped up in her designation, and nothing else signified.

Except… wasn’t that what Daxen and Vaelenor did, too? That dismissive flick of the wrist. The way their eyes seemed to pass right over me like I wasn’t actually there. Just a ghost in their castle.

Her gaze had flicked down to my hands, still resting on the floor on either side of me. She’d grabbed her things in silence, not bothering to wait for a reply, and left. Once again, I’d been left all alone in this cold room. Tired, hungry, in pain, and so mad I could almost feel the anger coming off me in waves.

I’d sat there staring at the wall, and before I knew it, the moon was high in the sky. I’d lost time again.

I’d lain back down, prodding at the injury under my shirt, shocked ash the way it seemed to have shrunk in size. It’d only been a few hours, yet it felt and looked like it’d been healing for days. There was still pain, but it was an echo of the agony I’d felt earlier. It didn’t make sense. Unless…

Unless when Caelan and I were together, the magic in our Bond had somehow healed me faster. And if it had worked that way on me…

Then maybe it had worked that way on Caelan as well. The thought had a fragile smile curling on my lips, and I closed my eyes. That time, I allowed myself to fall into a dreamless sleep willingly.

Now that I’m awake again, I keep hearing my mother’s voice. That persistent warning has somehow found its way into my mind, looping over and over. ‘Hide everything, Idril. Just between us girls, right, my love?’