*Blanca*“And if you leave this room without my permission one more time,” Mother says as she stands next to her henchman, Ardesia, “you can rest assured I will break your legs so that you cannot leave again.”The lash hits my upper thighs, my back, my bottom as I stare at the wall above my bed, trying not to cry. The last thing I need is to break down and let her know how badly she’s hurting me.It’s not the lash so much, although it does sting. But this isn’t the same kind of whip they use in the dungeon–the kind they use on Mr. Blake. This one is leather, but it doesn’t have anything like bits of glass or metal on the end. Nevertheless, after twenty-five lashes, it breaks my skin. I know I’ll have welts and scrapes for the next several weeks.I keep my eyes focused on the wall as it continues, my arms folded over my breasts. She allows me to wear my bra and underwear while I’m being whipped, but if my arm wasn’t over my breast right now, she’d see the place where Kieran marked me.

*Blanca*“I need to get out of here.”It’s the only thought I can allow to enter my mind. It’s the same thought that has kept me going ever since I was old enough to understand that I am not like the others. I need to get the hell out of here and never look back.I’m sitting on my bed with my legs pulled up to my chest, thinking about where I would go. The door is locked from the outside again, but I have the key the mice stole for me hidden away in one of the mouse holes. I can get out.But once I do… where do I go?I hear my door knob rattle, and it startles me. “Blanca, open this fucking door!” My brother’s voice booms, and my breath catches in my that.“I… can’t,” I stammer, leaping off the bed and approaching the barrier. “It’s locked from the outside.”“What?” Kieran swears under his breath and rattles the door knob again–harder this time. “Who the hell locked you in your room?”“Mother,” I tell him. I don’t say more. He will either talk to me through the door or find someone to

*Blanca*“It’s okay, Little Raven. I’m okay.”Mr. Blake’s voice sounds in my head, and I freeze, afraid to breathe. This isn’t just like when a person thinks they hear someone’s voice because it’s so familiar to them. No, this is completely different. It’s as if I’m on the phone–something I’m never allowed to use–and I can actually hear Mr. Blake’s voice, and he’s talking directly to me.“Wh-who? Who is talking to me please?” I say aloud as I also think the stuttering mess of a sentence.“It’s me, Blake. I can hear you, Little Raven. You’re mind-linking.”Shock ripples through me as I gasp and hold a hand over my trembling lips. “Moon Goddess,” I murmur. The mind-link? But that’s not possible. I’ve never had the mind-link before, not even with my own family members. It’s not possible. There’s just no way that Mr. Blake can hear what I’m thinking.“Little Raven, have you given any more thought to what I said to you the other night? About all of the strange happenings that you and the C

*Blanca*After Candace left, I’d sat there immoble for quite some time. Her statement about Nessa being the worst match for Kieran had made me nauseated. But I’d managed to eat the food she’d brought me, and now, I’m pacing in the small area of my room.I can mind-link with Mr. Blake but no one in my family. Just to prove it, I try sending Candace a message that I’m done eating, but she says nothing back to me because she can’t hear me.My own family treats me worse than garbage. Why would they do that?The Moon Goddess matched me with someone who can’t possibly be my mate if everything I’ve been told my whole life is the truth.But what if it’s not?What if I am from Escuro? I have no idea how that’s possible since I have flickers of myself sleeping in a crib far away from everyone else in the castle except for the mean old maids who used to take care of me. I remember crying for my mother and being snatched out of that crib and shaken.Maybe that never happened, and it’s just a bad

*Blanca*“Hand me the key, Kieran,” I tell him as I see guards coming closer to where he’s standing on the other side of the gate I just squeezed through. Right now, the guards are preoccupied, fighting the birds I’m sending to distract them. But it won’t take long before the birds get scared and fly off or the soldiers get the upper hand. If he is actually coming with me, which I still can’t believe, then he’d better get his ass over here soon.But he can hardly unlock the gate in his wolf form, so he needs to hand me the key. “Give it to me,” I whisper to him.Kieran stares at me for a long moment before shaking his wolf head and dropping the key–on his side of the gate. I think this means he’s not coming with me, and if I don’t hurry up and run, maybe he’ll change his mind altogether and work with the guards to get me back inside the castle. I take a few steps backward.In a blink, Kieran shifts into his human form. He’s standing there naked in front of me. Flashes of images from