SERA

The car ride to his territory was forty-five minutes of hell.

Kael sat on his side of the back seat like the leather between us was a moat. He hadn't spoken since the ceremony, hadn't looked at me, hadn't acknowledged that I was sitting close enough to count his breaths. His driver kept his eyes on the road and the partition stayed up, which meant I was trapped in a sealed box with a man whose scent was slowly driving me out of my mind.

I pressed my thighs together and stared out the ...