Two months.
Sixty days since the ceremony that had shattered whatever fragile pieces of Maisie still remained. Sixty nights of chains, cruelty, and the slow suffocation of isolation.
Gaius had withdrawn her from the world completely.
No more public meals at his feet. No more standing silently behind his chair during meetings. No more forced appearances at pack events. He kept her locked inside his private wing, chained for hours at a time, only bringing her out when he needed to remind himself she was still his. Servants were forbidden from entering unless he was present. Even her father had been turned away twice.
The gossip, however, could not be chained.
It spread like wildfire through the pack house corridors, whispered in kitchens and training fields and behind closed doors.
“Th
