Kaelen’s POV….
The kingdom moved like ghosts.
Wolves whispered when I passed, but I barely cared enough to listen. Their respect meant nothing anymore; titles felt like empty metals clinking in a void. I walked through my own halls like a blade without a wielder—sharp, functional, but hollow.
I remembered everything—my name, my oath, the war.
But emotions… the colors behind those memories… were gone.
The seer's trap had stripped something essential from me, and all that remained was instinct. Duty. Rage. Power.
No warmth.
No softness.
Nothing human.
Maps lay scattered across the central table, marked with blood-colored pins. Every one represented a fallen pack. Every one a failure of the council.
Aria would say, “We save who we can.”
But I knew now that mercy would bring death f
