He gave a self-mocking smile.
"I ignored you on purpose. I cut you out. I hurt you. I used Mira as a weapon against the marriage I had been forced into. I drank in the sight of your suffering,that quiet, dignified suffering,and I told myself it was what you deserved. I was, from beginning to end, a complete and utter bastard."
I listened in silence. I did not speak.
Alpha Kael's voice began to falter.
"And then you left. You walked out without a sound. You took nothing with you,the same way you came to me, all those years ago, without a sound."
"I tore the world apart looking for you. And when I found you, I went about it all wrong again. I thought if I followed you, if I tried to make amends, if I bowed my head, I could win you back."
"It was when you said you no longer loved me,tha
