Chapter Nineteen
An Alpha's Failure
Silence settled over the receiving hall.
Not the comfortable silence of thoughtful conversation.
The crushing silence that followed truth.
Alpha Marcus Ashmoor couldn't look away from Aveline.
For eighteen years she had been a constant presence in his home.
Always somewhere in the background.
Lighting fires.
Serving meals.
Cleaning blood from training rooms.
Bringing reports.
Carrying books.
Standing quietly behind his chair during council meetings.
Invisible.
Not because she had hidden.
Because he had never truly looked.
He searched her face now.
Really looked.
Dark circles beneath emerald eyes.
Old scars crossing her hands.
The slight hitch in her breathing every time she shifted her weight.
She was painfully thin.
When had that
