Chapter 6

This can’t be transpiring.

I sit up and yank the note from Mother’s hand. “You went through my purse?”

“What do you think you’re doing?” she hisses, disregarding my query. “You are in a mating pact. You can’t see another man behind your fiancé’s back!”

“I’m not seeing anyone. I’m sure you read it. It’s an invitation to make up for—”

“It is an invitation to gossip. To scandal and ruin.” She grabs the card back and rips it in half, then in half again before dropping the pieces onto the carpet. “How long has this been going on?”

“How long has this been going on?” I almost argue that I’ve only been home for a few days, but then I remember that as far as everyone else in the pack is concerned, I could be a spy for Greater London. Maybe she thinks I was banging the king like a drum there, long before he seized the throne here.

Maybe she thinks I have something to do with him taking over the pack.

“You know exactly what I’m asking,” Mother insists. “How long have you and the king been seeing