Damon’s POV
The office was suffocating, the air charged with anger and the lingering smell of burnt books. My parents sat before me like ghosts, weighed down by their secrets, their mistakes. I didn’t recognize the man sitting across from me. My father—the Alpha I’d looked up to, trusted—was nothing more than a stranger wrapped in betrayal.
I leaned forward, my voice cold and sharp. “You think I’m not afraid? Of course, I’m afraid. But not of them. Not of those bloodsuckers, and not of death. I’m afraid of losing her.”
My father flinched, but I didn’t let up. “So don’t stand there pretending this was the only way. That sacrificing your own people was the best you could do. I want the truth, and I want it now. How do you know Demitri?”
He exhaled heavily, his shoulders slumping under th
