CY POV -
The hum of the royal plane barely registered through the roar in my head. The leather seat under me felt stiffer than usual, or maybe that was just me, tense, unsettled, buzzing with something I hadn't quite made peace with. Beta. I was Beta now. Official. Real. The title dripped with a significance I hadn't earned yet.
I leaned forward, elbows planted on my knees. The stretch across my back felt wrong. Everything felt wrong.
It wasn't a stretch why. Hailee.
I hadn't buried her. I couldn't. My hands hadn't even shaken dirt across her body. She still laid in a cold chamber under the Alpha King's house, waiting. Waiting for what? Closure? Forgiveness?
Or maybe just for me to stop running.
I stared at the floor of the jet, chewing on the inside of my cheek until it numbed. I'd
