CRYSTAL POV
"You made it look easy," I whispered.
The words came out softer than I intended, I sounded so fragile and broken, but the moment they left my mouth, I saw the effect it had on Ryan immediately, because his expression changed suddenly, that for some second he no longer looked like the powerful Alpha everyone feared, respected, and obeyed without question, but instead looked like a man carrying so much guilt and regret that it had slowly started eating him alive from the inside out.
The dim emergency light hanging weakly above us went off and on once, casting shadows across his face, and in that unsteady glow he looked exhausted in a way I had never seen before, older somehow, like the weeks we spent apart had aged him years instead of days.
His hand tightened uncon
