" She’d spent three centuries waiting and hoping for a male to notice her. Three centuries trying to fit in with the glymera. Three centuries working desperately to be someone’s sister, someone’s daughter, someone’s mate. All those external expectations had been the laws of physics that had governed her life, more pervasive and grounding than gravity. Except where had trying to meet them gotten her? Orphaned, unmated, and shunned. All right, then, her first rule for the rest of her days: no more looking outside for definitions. She might not have any clue who she was, but better to be lost and searching than shoved into a social box by someone else. "
― J.R. Ward , Lover Revealed (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #4)