I don't mind being called snobbish, a pain and a social climber, but being called unkind really hurts.

When I'm called unkind... that really cuts to the quick. You can say anything else that you like about me.

Being blonde means people decide on sight that you are much prettier and nicer than you really are, just as Americans automatically add 10 points to someone's IQ when they hear an English accent. Fact.

Being boring is just wrong, isn't it? You wouldn't have got anywhere being boring.

I just really love being in my pajamas.

So instead of ignoring the pain, I called out to it, reaching for more. Pain is part of who I am. It’s the defining characteristic of a Shifter’s transformation. Pain is what I suffer from my enemies. It is what I deal out to those who break our laws. It is what I protect my charges from. Pain is what I inherited from fate, that fickle bitch who gave me a mouth and fists, then put me in a world that wanted only my womb and my cradled arms.