Stalked by the Phantom Alpha
1k Views · Ongoing · Ellis Carter
"At least she's pretty," one of them said. "Those eyes could make a man forget a great deal."
"Pretty is not a bloodline. She's a half blood with no wolf and no voice. You can't bring that to a table and expect men to keep their faces."
"Honestly," Damian said, "the way she is now, she doesn't fit me."
I was standing in the doorway with his keys in my fist. He didn't see me until he had finished.
Then, in a frozen garden an hour later, a voice behind my shoulder.
"Since my brother treats you like this," Alaric said, "have you considered ending your engagement to him completely?"
Sibyl Holloway was taken out of a shelter at three and told she had been chosen. She had been installed.
When the Holloways' daughter vanished, a half-blood child born the same night became the anchor of a ritual Cedar City knew nothing about. For twelve years the room at the end of the greenhouse filled with wolfsbane and the taste of iron. Then Cecilia came home. The anchor had done its work, and the family had no further use for the tool.
Sibyl is left promised to Damian Thorne, who holds her hand where the elders can see and calls her a charity case where they cannot. He wants the archive her name unlocks and cannot stand the weakness attached to it.
His brother wants nothing from her, which is exactly why she cannot stop thinking about him. Alaric Thorne was struck off the register at sixteen and came back owning the one supply this city cannot live without. He has no reason to notice a girl with no voice and no scent.
He notices. He always has.
"Pretty is not a bloodline. She's a half blood with no wolf and no voice. You can't bring that to a table and expect men to keep their faces."
"Honestly," Damian said, "the way she is now, she doesn't fit me."
I was standing in the doorway with his keys in my fist. He didn't see me until he had finished.
Then, in a frozen garden an hour later, a voice behind my shoulder.
"Since my brother treats you like this," Alaric said, "have you considered ending your engagement to him completely?"
Sibyl Holloway was taken out of a shelter at three and told she had been chosen. She had been installed.
When the Holloways' daughter vanished, a half-blood child born the same night became the anchor of a ritual Cedar City knew nothing about. For twelve years the room at the end of the greenhouse filled with wolfsbane and the taste of iron. Then Cecilia came home. The anchor had done its work, and the family had no further use for the tool.
Sibyl is left promised to Damian Thorne, who holds her hand where the elders can see and calls her a charity case where they cannot. He wants the archive her name unlocks and cannot stand the weakness attached to it.
His brother wants nothing from her, which is exactly why she cannot stop thinking about him. Alaric Thorne was struck off the register at sixteen and came back owning the one supply this city cannot live without. He has no reason to notice a girl with no voice and no scent.
He notices. He always has.
















































