Lucian stood in the house that belonged to his mate. He couldn’t think of it as their home, not anymore. Their last encounter had broken something between them, and he didn’t know if they could ever get it back.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting Peri’s scent saturate him until he was sure it was in his very pores. The ache inside of him was a festering wound that would never heal. Excruciating was putting it lightly. Even when he had been trapped in the Dark Forest, he’d not experienced this level of wretchedness. Lucian remembered the first time he saw her. He’d thought he was hallucinating. He had been in the Dark Forest for so long that he was sure his mind was broken and the woman was just an illusion. But she was real, and she was his. From that moment forward, the d
