I thrashed, tried to spit it out, but they held me fast, fingers clamped around my face. The root hit my stomach and I felt it immediately, a wrongness spreading outward, reaching for the place where my wolf lived. Not pain. Silence. A silence that was growing, swallowing the low hum that had been there since the day I was born, the presence that had breathed when I breathed and howled when I howled and had never, not once in my entire life, left me alone.
Caspian crouched in front of me and patted my cheek, slow and deliberate, every touch a humiliation. "Can't have you coveting Seraphina down the line. Can't have you producing more heirs and stirring up trouble."
"My mating ceremony's in two days. Still need to go try on my Blood Circlet. If you'll excuse me."
As he stood, the moonstone pendant at his waist swung into view. He made no effort to hide it.
It was Seraphina's. She had told me it was the only thing her mother left her. And she had given it to Caspian Stormfang.