Damien's POV
I do not remember leaving the hall.
One moment I was standing among Silvercrest's delegation, the Alpha King's voice still echoing through my skull with words I could not stop hearing—Princess Ariana Mooncrest—and the next I was in an empty corridor, my back pressed against cold stone, my breath coming faster than it should have for a man who had not moved a single step in violence.
I had rejected her.
I had stood in Silvercrest's hall, in front of my entire pack, and called her weak. Unworthy. A wolf who could not stand beside an Alpha.
And she had been the daughter of the most powerful man in the realm the entire time.
My wolf paced violently beneath my skin, no longer content to simply press against my composure. He clawed now, desperate and furious, and for the first
