The pack house air, once so familiar, feels thick and suffocating as I walk away from Nox. Kira is a desperate, guttural sob in my head and her despair is raw and mind wrecking.
I fight back my own tears, my throat tight with the effort. The sight of him… he looks like a shadow of himself. The dark circles under his eyes, the hollows in his cheeks from considerable weight loss – it’s a stark testament to the pain he’s endured.
The feel of him, even for those fleeting two seconds in his embrace, sparked a dormant ache deep within me.
His acceptance of me being his true mate, the desperate hope in his eyes… it’s overwhelming.
But it’s too late. It has to be.
I bar myself of all emotions, constructing a cold, unfeeling wall. It’s too late for him to accept me now. He sealed his fate
