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“Tamsyn!” Alise appeared. She hurried down the aisle to me. “What are you doing here? You don’t like the wolves.”

I resisted pointing out thattheydid not likeme.

Seizing her hands, I tugged her out of the kennels. That did little to quiet the wolves, however. The animals could no longer see me, but they could still hear me... smell me. That was all they needed to track their quarry.Scent.Historically, that was what guided them deep into the ancient caves and winding tunnels of the Crags to ferret out dragons for the scores of warriors following behind them.

Alise glanced over her shoulder in bewilderment. “They’ve gone mad.”

I shook my head. She didn’t recall that this was how they were when it came to me. It had been years since I’d ventured close to the kennels. For this very reason.

“You didn’t come to tell me good-bye.” My voice trembled with a faint accusation.

Tears welled in her eyes. “I just couldn’t.” She shook her head. “I couldn’t bear seeing you, knowing what we forced you to do—”

I pulled her into a hug. “Don’t say that. You didn’t force me to do anything.”

“Our parents did. The lord regent. And I know you did it for us. For me and Feena and Sybilia. You’ve always done everything for us.”

Her hot tears dampened my neck. I pulled back to look at her, searching her face. “I’m not sorry. Life was going to change anyway. It was coming. This is... fine.Iwill be fine,” I vowed, pushing a fair tendril back, off her moist cheek.

She nodded. “It’s just that he is so... frightening. Aren’t you scared of going with him?”

I had a flash of him as he had been last night inside our curtained bed—so very decent and tender.All will be well.He’d promised me that before he had proceeded to wring pleasure from me. Shattering, gasping pleasure as his body joined with mine. He didn’t have to saythose words of comfort... or to make me feel so alive, so good, so hungry for him. And yet he had.

There it was. The uncomfortable truth. My weakness. I would not mind doing yesterday with him all over again—this time without a veil between us. This time with no one else in the room.

Except now he hated me, and rightly so. I could not blame him.

The wolves were deafening now. I could hear the keepers within, arriving with buckets of food to appease them, tutting under their tongues and cooing to the agitated beasts, clearly perplexed at their distress.

“There you are!”

At the thundering voice, I turned to watch my husband—stillstrange, that—storming down the path toward me, his boots biting into the dirt-packed ground.

My body sprang to life at the sight of him, the familiar warmth pervading me, the mystifying tightness pulling at the center of my chest again.

He was dressed to ride, his leathered armor stretched across his wide chest. The dark hair framing his face did nothing to soften his expression. The hilt of his sword peeked out from behind him, and I could well imagine one of his thick arms reaching for it in one swift move, sliding it from its scabbard before cleaving me in half.

Alise shrank behind me, and I hated that she had to see him like this, glowering and intimidating, when she was already afraid for me. She would worry for me long after I left.

“I was saying good-bye,” I snapped, annoyed at the impression he was making, at the unease within her that he did nothing to quell. Not that he owed her anything. Not that he owed me anything.

Alise sucked in a breath behind me at my tone.

He paused at my rebuttal, and then resumed his strides, his expression only more cross as he advanced. “Were you not informed we would be leaving at first light?”

“I was on my way.”

Tension rippled across his taut jaw. “We will not pander to your whims. The crossing is long and grueling. Your leisure will not be a consideration.”

My sister’s hand tightened on my arm. If I had any doubt that he was still angry, it fled in an instant. I could expect no softness from him.

“I had assumed as much,” I replied.

“Good.” He grasped my elbow. “Then let us go. We should have already departed.”

I twisted free to turn and face Alise. “I will write to you as soon as I can.”

Alise nodded jerkily. “As will I.” She sent a nervous glance to the big warrior. “Do not hurt her, my lord,” she blurted with a thrust of her chin. It was the hardest and meanest I had ever seen her. “Or you shall have to contend with me.”