Kael’s POV

I never should have let it get this far.

Her eyes haunted me, the way they flickered between hurt and hope when she asked if something was wrong. I couldn’t lie to her.

Not convincingly, anyway.

But I had to lie.

Because the truth would destroy everything she believed in.

Everything I was trying to protect.

Lola wasn’t just the daughter of two Alphas. She was the future of our kind. And I… I was the anomaly that wasn’t supposed to exist.

I sat in the temple ruins that night, the blade I’d carved runes into glowing faintly at my side.

The same blade I’d left under her...