Lycannar Nothing. Nothing I see… brings peace anymore. I had expected it, and now that it is here, nothing terrifies me more than this. The isolation. The sudden… loneliness. As if she doesn’t exist, as if the love between us… never happened in the first place. Standing in the corridor of my kingdom, in the Blacktower, I can only gaze at the massive gates and the walls beyond my territory. I await her. Questions I will answer. Words I will give with the truest heart. A bow I will make without caring about my status. A promise I will speak without hesitation. But she did not come. No. Instead, I heard whispers. Different words. That she is locked in her chamber, more prisoner than Alpha of her pack. Her brother controls everything, and he is a very, very, very smart man who knows the pros and cons of every situation. What’s worse is… I can’t hurt him. I can’t take him out of the way. Even if he poisoned all and sundry against me, I must never touch a single hair on his head. Why? Simply because he is the older brother of the woman I love. Heartache has slept and woken with me since her farewell that day. My sisters have been on tiptoe, and my brother Hades has been supportive, standing solidly behind me. But I couldn’t brush away the fear, the dread of what Zephyrine might feel. Will she think I used her? Will she perhaps hate me for… for killing her father? How will I explain to her that once a month, under the full moon, I lose my senses? Those questions tore my heart until the sound of the massive gates opening wide reached me that dark night. Goosebumps rose on my skin when the horse rode in and that carriage I had gifted her with the most grateful heart followed behind. My eyes caught the Ash Pack guard who stood at the gate, ensuring the carriage had entered, and then he turned back, riding away. Confusion, curiosity, surprise all hit me at once as I looked at the carriage, and then she alighted. Blue. With a chest in her hands. She stood beside the carriage, slowly lifting her eyes toward me, and my entire body went cold. Literally cold. “Come in,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper, but I knew she heard. Obediently, she made her way inside. After she disappeared through the entrance, dread welled up in my heart. I glanced at the carriage again, then the horse, before I moved, descending the stairs, down to the dining hall where she stood with the chest in her hands. My eyes fixed on the chest first… before flicking up to her face. The torn shoulder of her dress froze me in place, and before I could speak, hurried footsteps echoed and my sisters burst in. “What happened? Blue?” Serena asked, while Maerez walked forward, her eyes wide with worry. “Blue?” She sniffed back her tears, then placed the chest carefully on the table and pushed it gently toward me before bowing. “My lady asked me to deliver this to you.” Hearing that pinned me, rooted me where I stood. “Are you hurt?” I asked, my voice rough but firm. She looked at me briefly before lowering her gaze. “No, my King.” Those words struck deep just as my brother walked into the hall too. The tension rose immediately, heavy and sharp, as he leaned on the wall at the doorway. I dropped my gaze to the chest, unable to look away. Slowly, I reached forward and lifted the lid. My eyes caught them at once, my rings. The very rings that made her mine. My hand shook as I reached for the one I had proposed with, forged from black quartz of the demon realm and Lycan Kingdom pure gold, bound together with a drop of my blood to make it sacred. “How is she?” The question escaped me, low, almost voiceless. No answer came at first. Then Blue lifted her gaze to me, her eyes brimming until tears spilled down her face. “She cries every day,” she whispered. “She won’t eat her meals. Her brother isolates her, and we are ordered to never speak to her unless absolutely necessary. She… never recovers. She’s slowly losing her sanity, her valor, her very self.” I choked, the weight crushing me. Harder than ever now. I looked away and swallowed painfully. I broke her. I… I broke her. “Go back.” My voice cracked as I pressed the ring I proposed with into Blue’s hand. “Go back and give this to her. Tell her I will accept any punishment but not this one. Tell her she’s mine, and I’m hers, and I won’t let anyone take that away. If she wants to break up, she should come here and say it to my face.” Blue stared at me, daring to hold my gaze, her tears sliding again. Then she bowed, clutching the ring, and turned to leave. Once more she rode back to Ash Pack. “Chantel, have a guard escort her to the Ash Pack gate and return immediately,” I ordered my bodyguard, who lingered in the shadows. The command was obeyed, and soon the sound of the gates opening and closing echoed through my halls, signaling Blue’s departure. The ache inside me surged. I sank into the nearest chair, burying my face into my palms. Blue had been hurt. I saw it. The torn dress. The hatred meant for me was being vented on my people now. Zephyrine returned everything, but she didn’t return me to the way I was before I met her. Sadness choked me until I nearly drowned in it. But then a hand pressed firm and steady against my shoulder. My eldest sister. “We will pass through this, Lycannar. We will.” Her assurance anchored me, and I grasped her hand, kissed it, clinging to the sanity she offered. This time will pass. I will smile again. I will be happy again.