My vision blurred until both of them became distorted shapes. But my father… my father was still waiting.
Biting back a sob, I lowered myself to my knees.
Bang!
My forehead struck the stone tiles, pain exploding through my skull.
Blood trickled down my temple. I bowed again.
And again.
My voice was barely a whisper, hoarse and broken. “Please… I’m begging you… let my father have his ritual…”
The world dimmed at the edges.
From the bed, Myrielle’s lilting voice drifted out. “Draven, my ankle really hurts… will you massage it?”
Without looking at me—not even once—Draven knelt beside her and began to gently rub her foot.
Something inside me went utterly, completely silent.
Time passed in a blur.
Eventually, Draven finally lifted his head, frowning slightly as though annoyed by the sight of me bleeding on the floor.
“That’s enough,” he said flatly.
He turned to his beta-maid.
“Arrange the moon-menders. Her father will have his ritual.”
My entire body trembled as I pushed myself upright, using the wall for support. My legs felt like lead, as if bound in chains.
Draven stepped toward me, hand outstretched—almost gentle.
I flinched back violently.
For a split second, shock flickered in his eyes.
As if he truly couldn’t comprehend why I would recoil from his touch.
But I didn’t wait.
Ignoring the agony ripping through my skull and chest, I turned and staggered down the stone passageway—toward my father’s chamber.
After my father’s moon-mending ritual, the Senior Bone-Mender told me that although the procedure had technically succeeded, the delay had weakened the bone’s lunar fusion. There would be lasting consequences.
My legs buckled and I collapsed onto the cold stone floor of the healer-sanctum. Tears poured down my face, unstoppable.
If Alpha Draven hadn’t commanded the entire Bone-Mender Circle to tend to Myrielle’s twisted ankle, my father wouldn’t have suffered like this.
When my sobs finally quieted, I sensed another presence in the stone passageway.
Calder—true heir of the Blackspire Pack, the Alpha-born son. My former neighbor.
He had always been aloof. As pups, every time I tried to approach him, he pushed me away. Even after he returned from warrior training at the Capital Moonscourt, he stayed distant. We were never close.
Now, his expression remained unreadable, but he extended a clean handkerchief without a word.
I blinked, dazed, before accepting it.