Aeron's POV~
For a moment, I didn't understand the words.
She escaped. how?
Two simple syllables shouldn't have held the power to shatter everything. But they did.
My heart stopped beating. My breath caught. I felt the suffocation clawing at my mind.
The hall, once thick with tension, now turned shallow. Murmurs rippled like a wave through the nobles, a hundred heads swiveling toward the doors. But I couldn't hear them. Couldn't see anything but that warrior, panting and trembling, sweat glistening on his brow.
I took a step forward, my voice hoarse. "What did you just say?"
His eyes darted up, wild and frightened. "Selene...she—she escaped. She's gone, Alpha. Vanished before the guard rotation. We—we don't know how—"
The rest of his sentence drowned in the sound of something knocking behind my back.
Luca had risen first, knocking over a ceremonial goblet, his face twisted in a snarl. "Gone? What the fuck do you mean she's gone?"
