Alaric’s POV
Verena’s words echo through my mind. “You pretend to be some pretentious rich kid, but you’re really not the bad guy you make yourself out to be.”
I bring the dagger up, aiming it right above my heart, where the pain is fiercest. I wish I could believe her now the way I once did. But when she left, that belief in myself shattered.
She’d been the most beautiful part of my life, the only person who’d loved me without expectation or pretense. But I couldn’t leave with her, couldn’t leave everything—this pack, my family, the tangled legacy of power and duty.
I was selfish. A part of me always knew that. So, in the end, it wasn’t her fault she left; it was mine, and I would never blame her.
I inhale sharply, memories flickering like ghosts through my mind. Images of Nyxia fl
