Alaric’s POV
My jaw aches from the constant grinding, but the physical pain is nothing compared to the torrent inside me. Two days. It’s been two days since she left, and the ache in my chest is like a wound that refuses to heal. I glare down at the Beta trembling on his knees before me. He was supposed to guard her door. To make sure she couldn’t escape.
I look away, fighting the burn of regret that churns through me. The memory of her face—of the look in her eyes when she left—haunts me, blooming into an ache that feels like knives in my chest, each one twisted deeper than the last. Her accusations, her anger… the uncertainty that flickered across her face. And Dominico, too. He’s been confined to his room since, a shadow of himself, as if she took his soul with her.
A cold sliver of
