Adrian's pov The silence in the hall was a living thing...thick, smothering, pressing against my chest like a weight I couldn't shake.
I stood there, staring at the door she had locked behind her. Alana hadn't said a word since the trial, only that one line.
"If you want my forgiveness, banish her." Her voice still echoed in my skull like a curse, and I had replayed it so many times it had become a chant in my bones. I had tried everything.. apologies whispered beneath her door, food trays left untouched, letters returned unopened. ... Yet nothing.
So I swallowed my pride and went to her friends, something I never thought I'd do. I found them in the garden, where the sun cut golden lines between the leaves. They looked at me like they didn't know me anymore.
Maybe they didn't. I bowed my head... me, the Alpha, bowing like a broken man and said the words that burned my throat: "Please… Help me fix this.
I've already lost her once. I can't lose her again."
