Liora's fingers curled into her lap. She had no words yet—none that could possibly meet the depth of what he was revealing. So she let him keep going.
"I left," he said. "Bleeding. Alone. I didn't even bury her. I left my previous pack to ruin and never look back ever since."
He looked up at Liora, something fractured in his gaze. "But I loved her. With everything I had. Even when she stood against me."
"It's strange, isn't it? How the mate bond kicks in, and suddenly—within a week—this complete stranger becomes your whole world. It was unsettling. And when I found out she was the enemy's daughter . . . it felt like the goddess was playing a cruel joke."
The fire's glow flickered across his face, casting long shadows that seemed to echo the pain written into every line of him.
"Months later. When I'd stopped bleeding. When I could finally look at a blade without seeing her blood on it. I moved on with life."
