Kael lay sprawled on the granite, his own Alpha blood a shocking stain upon the sacred stone. The pack was a frozen sea of horror, their thousands of eyes locked on the hollow ruin in my chest. He was the architect of this ruin, and his frantic attempt to unmake his work with his own lifeblood had been cast aside. His shock was absolute, his offering rejected.
The fool.
He scrambled to his feet, a wild, cornered look in his eyes. The regal Alpha was gone, replaced by a man staring into the abyss of his own making. And like all men who fall from great heights, his first instinct was not to repent, but to cast blame, to shed the weight of his guilt onto another.
His head snapped toward Selene. She was standing by the elders’ circle, her face pale, her act of the fragile victim having curd
