"The crown weighs less than regret."
The door to my chambers closed with a dull thud behind me, shutting out Marcus's lingering stare. He wanted to say more than "I could feel it in the way he lingered, the way his jaw ticked as if words pressed against his teeth. But he obeyed, bowing his head before retreating.
Good. I needed silence or at least the illusion of it. The truth was, I was never truly alone at any point since I took over as the Alpha King of the Northern Shifter Kingdom. I tore the heavy cloak from my shoulders and let it fall across the chair near the fire. My crown sat like lead on my head, a band of gold that felt more like iron shackles tonight. With a slow breath, I pulled it free and set it down on the table. The metal rang faintly against the wood, a sound that reminded me too much of chains clinking in dark stone corridors.
Chains that had bound Taemin, chains that had lived under my roof, and my hands curled into fists before I realized it.
