Irina:If anyone would have told me that I would be standing in a sept of peace, wondering what it meant to be in peace, I would have called them foolish. But here I was, I was standing in the one place where others would be more than willing to be in my place. A place that I know, that even the woman that called herself my sister wanted to be in.“What is peace?” I asked, shaking my head in question. “Because as far as I am concerned, we neither surrounded by it, nor do we know what it is.”“It is the place where you are going to find yourself questioning. But the questions would have their answers.” She said, the lady in gold. Kai looked at me, and for a moment, I doubted what she said. This wasn’t my ideal picture of peace. This place, I knew that it wasn’t. and I knew for fact that I was not fit to be ‘queen’. Whatever that was and whatever she meant, I knew that it wasn’t me.“I am supposed to believe that what you are telling me is true, right? Is that what you expect of me?” I

Katerina:I stood outside in my balcony, running my finger over the pendant, the one present that I couldn’t get rid of from him. Kai was my blessing, and I knew that though he was his son, he was my blessing. But this one, it was what I believed to be love from him.I couldn’t get rid of it no matter how hard I tried, and it was times like this when I found myself running my finger over it, staring into space where I remembered the time when I was young, happy, and in love. The fact that it was always with me was something beyond me, but now, after thirty years, it was a small part of me that I couldn’t let go of. Just like he once was.“You’ve been quiet for a longer while than necessary, Katerina.” Rustem said, breaking my train of thoughts as he walked out toward me. He put his hand on my shoulder, gently squeezing it, and I took a deep breath as I turned to face him.“You know when you are deeply in love with someone and you know that they don’t love you back, and then to matters

Irina:I woke up, careful not to wake Kai up, as I got out of the bed.The man had barely slept, and the last thing that I needed or wanted for him was to end up exhausting himself more than necessary. He needed the break, and I wasn’t going to deprive him from it.I walked out of the room, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep anytime soon, and to the dressing room to freshen up. Washing my face in the suite’s bathroom could end up waking him, and I wasn’t going to take that risk.My heart ached with each step that I took, and it wasn’t long before I found myself in the garden, walking around, knowing that I would be finding most of the pack members asleep. Some were walking around, others patrolling, but it was almost empty.We have been here a week, and I still couldn’t find myself accepting what happened. And with my mother still being asleep, I knew that I couldn’t help but find myself falling deeper into the cocoon that I was in. Kai was the one reason that I was a

Irina:“Hey,” Anastasia said, putting a drink on the table in front of me.I looked at it for a moment then at her, and she smiled. “It is not poisoned, I promise.”“The fact that you would think that I would be concerned about it being poisoned amazes me. But then again, you lived your life dealing with Cosimo. I doubt that you would be living in any less worry or concern.” I said, and she smiled. I took a sip of the drink, wincing when I felt it burn my throat. It was vodka.“Are you okay?”“Would a person in my shoes be okay?” I asked, and she sighed. “I need to think straight, and no matter how much I want to, I really can’t find myself doing so. And to make matters worse, I know that nothing that they are going to tell me is going to make this any better. I am going to need to try and understand things my way, and it is going to be a lot harder as time goes.”“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I am exiled from both my brother and mother. Neither one of them is going to want

Kai:“Are you sure that you are going to want to do this, Irina?” I asked, looking at my mate, remembering the pain that I saw in her eyes the other day.The fact that I knew that she wanted to speak to her mother wasn’t one that I was going to deny. But I was worried that IF she did, that she would be falling back into the cocoon that I barely managed to get her out of.“I know that you are worried, Kai. But I have no other choice right now. I am not going to run away from the woman. She still is the person who raised me, and considering the fact that I can’t get answers elsewhere, this is the one place that I have. Plus, it is not like I am a child.” She said, and I shook my head at her. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder, turning her to face me.“Irina, I don’t want you hurting. And you know that IF you try hiding it, I am going to feel your pain. This is going to make it a lot worse, because this time, I am going to have to look at the woman without breaking her face for breakin