To end a war, I offered myself in marriage to Joric, the Wolven King I’d known since childhood. He took my offer, pinning me to the unforgiving earth of the steppes for three days and three nights, a brutal act of possession. I thought it was a savage kind of love. Then he led his hordes to my home, Aethelgard, and showed me what it truly was: vengeance. He forced my head back, making me watch as wolves, his kin, tore my father, the Emperor, apart until his head was gone. He made me watch as my