The weight of despair clung to me like a second skin, heavy and suffocating. The room felt too small, the walls too close, as if they could collapse in on me at any moment. I lay there, a hollowed-out husk of the man I once was, struggling with the knowledge that my time might be running out. My father Armando was gone; his strength and wisdom had been the backbone of our pack. Now, without him, without an Alpha heir to step up, the pack's future was uncertain. Amelia was capable, sure, but Connor... he was an omega. My little brother wasn't cut out for battle or leadership; he was too gentle, too kind.
My chest ached with more than just the physical pain of the wound festering across it. It was the fear that gnawed at me relentlessly—the fear of leaving my pack vulnerable, leaving them w
