I stared at Adrian, heart pounding, unable to form words.
There was something hollow in him now, something that hadn't been there before. His eyes weren't just tired; they were dead in places, as if Aveline's heart hadn't been the only thing ripped out that day. He'd lost his only family, his only reason to keep breathing, to keep surviving. And it had been done so casually. So cruelly. By Lycans.
By Kieran's people.
The realization struck like a punch tobthe gut.
Kieran.
I had almost… forgotten.
Somewhere between the protests and the punishments, the deaths and the despair… I'd let myself forget who he really was. What he was.
The Lycan Prince.
The second most powerful wolf in the kingdom. Feared. Untouchable. Ruthless.
Only second to his father, the Alpha King himself.
I blinked, disoriented. How had I let that truth slip through the cracks in my mind? How had I grown so used to his presence, to his voice, that I'd managed to bury the weight of his title?
