The Herbal PreparationThe silence after Demetrius left was a physical weight. After the training session and the raw emotion of the scars lie, the Mate Bond felt taut, stretched thin between us. His anger—the fury for the dead Alpha who had supposedly scarred me—was still clinging to the air, powerful enough to smother the pain of the silver for a while. That furious protection was my new shield, but it also made the risk of discovery terrifying.

I spent the night sleeplessly, the fear that ...