(Daciana POV)
Farkas came toward me with black eyes, shaking hands, and tears sliding down his face as Ashina’s command dragged his wolf forward.
Every step he took broke something inside me, because this was the same old warrior who had thrown away safety to save me.
Conri raised his sword beside me, but I caught his wrist before he could turn mercy into blood and call it protection.
“Do not kill him,” I said, though my voice shook because Farkas’s claws were already stretching toward my throat.
Bardolph moved in front of me then, not with pride, not with command, but with the desperate speed of a man choosing pain.
Farkas struck him hard across the face, splitting his lip and throwing him sideways against the broken feast table.
Bardolph rose again before I could stop him, placing
