Venom and Vanity

The heavy oak doors of her private chambers slammed shut, but the opulent silence inside offered zero refuge.

Lorelai tore across the polished marble, her silk skirts whipping violently around her ankles. "An unranked nobody," she hissed to the empty room, her fingernails biting into her palms. "A pathetic, crippled stray. And the Alpha King claims her?"

"And Kaelen," she spat, her upper lip cur