Nyx's POV
I spent the night staring at the door, replaying his words over and over. Five days to give him something real, something he could use, something that wasn't just me stalling for time.
But I had nothing real to give him. Nothing except the truth I'd already admitted, that I'd been lying from the beginning and would keep lying if it meant keeping my family alive one more day.
When dawn broke through the curtains, I heard his footsteps in the corridor before the door even opened.
He walked in carrying silver chains.
My stomach dropped. I knew what was coming before he said a word.
"Hands."
I looked from the chains to his face, searching for any trace of the man who'd held my hand while I was dying, but that man was gone, replaced entirely by the Alpha King who saw me as noth
