Sayeva pursed her lips. "I'll give you 'self-assured,' but my success is ruining me and in the time I grew up, I wasn't considered all that pretty. I can't speak for the man."

"When you grew up?" Julienne looked confused. "As in the eighties?"

"Not exactly. However old you think I am, add eighteen hundred years to that."

Julienne looked stunned. "Eighteen hundred...."

"Yes. But my point is this." Sayeva leaned forward. "You can't admire me but not the effort I put into becoming me. I'm not a werewolf, but I've been abandoned. I've raised children on my own. I've suffered very real anxiety. I didn't get past any of it by letting it beat me."

Julienne nodded with he...

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