Aurélie POV
Hours earlier…
I still hadn’t replied to the Bloodnight Pack’s ridiculous demand that the Darkvale Alpha should “return” me as if I were some stolen possession. Damien could rot in hell before I ever acknowledged a contract he’d already destroyed the night he murdered my parents. The audacity was almost laughable.
Fabrice moved around the house with a careful quietness he rarely showed. He was worried about the weight I’d carried for years, about how every heartbeat of mine had pulsed with vengeance. And then, when Damien finally stood in front of me, all the fury I’d hoarded turned to ash. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t become him. I wasn’t a butcher. I wasn’t the monster he carved himself into.
One day, when my children ask about their grandparents, I want to tell them the
