Semua Bab Rejected for my Curves, Claimed by the Alpha King: Bab 1 - Bab 6

MARISOLIt was a formal notice, embossed with the council seal, the kind reserved for matters of succession, matters that mattered enough to put in writing instead of trusting to gossip.*Notice of Candidacy Review: Luna Succession, Reyes Pack.*My name was on it. So was Elena's. So was a line item near the bottom I had to read twice before it made sense.*Physical and diplomatic suitability to be assessed per Council Standard 4.2, in light of recent developments regarding candidate M. Reyes's marital status and public standing.*"They're evaluating my suitability," I said. My voice sounded strange to my own ears, too calm for what I was reading. "Three days after the ritual. Before I've even had time to—" I stopped myself. Didn't give Dana the satisfaction of watching me not finish that sentence."I thought you'd want to prepare," Dana said. "Rather than be blindsided in the room.""You thought I'd want to spend the next three days terrified instead of just one afternoon." I set the

MARISOL I didn't cry until I was alone in my room, and even then it didn't last long, a few minutes of something hot and furious leaking out of me before I made myself stop, wiped my face, and started packing.There wasn't much I wanted to take. That, more than anything, told me how long I'd already been half-gone from this place without admitting it.A knife. A second set of boots. The small carved wolf my mother had given me before she died, worn smooth from years of being turned over in my palm on nights I couldn't sleep. I held it a long moment before I put it in the bag, thinking about how little I actually knew about her death beyond the version I'd been handed as a child an accident, a bad winter, nothing anyone had ever encouraged me to ask more questions about.I didn't have room in my chest tonight for that particular grief. I set it aside, the way I'd learned to set aside most things that hurt too much to look at directly, and kept packing.My father found me an hour later

MARISOLI woke up swinging.Not literally, my body wouldn't have cooperated even if my instincts had wanted it to but my hand still shot out and closed around a wrist before my eyes had fully focused, some old reflex refusing to let me wake up defenseless twice in one week."Easy." The voice was low, amused despite itself. "I'm not the one who put those stitches in you."I blinked the room into focus. Unfamiliar ceiling. Unfamiliar smell, herbs, woodsmoke, something clean underneath it that I recognized before I placed it, and recognizing it made my stomach do something complicated.Him. The man from the border."Let go of my wrist," he said, not unkindly, "or don't. I don't actually mind."I let go like his skin had turned to fire."Where am I?""Ashworth pack house. Healer's den." He straightened, giving me space I hadn't asked for and was grateful for anyway. "You've been out most of a day."A day. I sat up too fast, pain lancing through my side, and hissed through my teeth rather