Page 9 of Red Ruin

Possession.

Hunger.

Still in beast mode from the elbows down, he snags my shoulders in his claws.

It’s been years since I touched a Sentinel so…raw.

One who doesn’t rein himself in, knowing I’m attached to a duke.

He’s all wild instinct, and until I soothe him back to understanding human speech, there’s no way to explain that he’s reading our connection wrong.

I’m not his.

I’m not anyone’s—even if I want to be.

“Let me help you.” I rise to him slowly, not wanting to set him off.

His hot breath hits my nose.

I’m desperate to soothe his rioting emotions, but under my falsely calm outside, my heart seethes just as hard as his out-of-control power.

This feels like betraying Kevan.

But that’s impossible.

Kevan betrayedme.

He went for a lecture at the Imperial Guide Academy and just never came home after. Left my messages unread.

I couldn’t track him down. I wasn’t allowed to leave the estate by myself.

For days, all I could do was pace my empty wing, sick with worry.

Then Duchess Calliope Kyorgos—my former mother-in-law and forever personal demon—came to deliver the news with her nose in the air and fresh poison dripping from her haughty mouth.

The young duke found his perfect match.

A fresh-minted Guide. Academy-educated, unlike me.

Eighty-three percent compatible with her precious son.

I try not to wonder if Kevan thought about me before he imprinted and disappeared to binge-fuck my replacement.

There was no warning, no discussion.

Not even aby-the-way, my fiancé.

One day, I was duchess-to-be, running ragged to keep up with the bullshit drudgery that goes with the title.

The next?

Duchess Kyorgos told me our engagement wasn’t needed anymore.

Neither am I.

She and the baroness were already searching for a new Sentinel to sell me off to.

I doubt Kevan would care.

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