Mary Ann’s POV
“He will hurt you again. Men like him always do.”
Velvera’s warning followed me long after the guards took her from the council chamber.
I told myself it did not matter.
Velvera had wanted to leave one final wound behind. She had already failed to provoke me with details of the affair, so she chose fear instead.
It was a calculated statement.
A cruel one.
That did not mean it was false.
I had once believed Modric could not hurt me more than he already had.
Then he abandoned me on our wedding night.
I believed the humiliation would end when we left the academy.
Then he carried it into our marriage.
I believed the mate bond would force him to treat me differently.
Instead, he used his confusion about it as another reason to punish me.
Modric was changing now.
He
