MALAKAI'S POV

I remembered the messages—"sex traps" filled with high-resolution nudes of her draped in nothing but transparent silk, or videos of her doing things no sister should ever send to her brother.

I had deleted them all without a word, my stomach turning with every notification.

"I didn't answer because your messages were a disgrace to our lineage," I said, my voice flat. "I sent you to get an education, to find a mate, to become someone worthy of the name Talia. Instead, you spent three years trying to provoke a reaction from me that you will never, ever get."

Talia straightened her spine, the "wounded girl" act slipping...