The words had slipped from me like a wound ripped open—Where’s Doniel?
For a moment, the room held its breath. My chest tightened, waiting for someone to scold me, to tell me I shouldn’t care, that I was foolish for even asking. But instead, Alek tilted my chin upward, his touch so gentle it made my heart ache. His eyes, those deep shades that always seemed to carry storms, softened like calm seas.
“Michi,” he murmured, his voice steady, careful, full of warmth, “you don’t have to be afraid of him anymore.”
I blinked, searching his gaze, and for once I didn’t see the Alpha everyone whispered about—the ruthless, untouchable leader. I saw the man beneath, one who was patient enough to hold me in all my broken pieces.
“He’s not free to hurt you,” Alek continued, brushing a stray lock of h
