~Hazel~

I paced the length of my assigned guest room for what was definitely the hundredth time today, my silk patten silent on the beautifully polished stone floor. The apartment was luxurious by anyone's standards—top-of-the-line furniture, good-quality tapestries, a four-poster bed draped with the finest linens—but it felt like a golden cage. I had been here for nearly a week, and Alpha Lucian had barely noticed my existence beyond that initial, humiliating one in the council hall.

This ...