The words were simple, but they shattered him: The Queen went to the werewolf territory to rest.
For a moment, Damien simply stared, his mind refusing to process the sentence. Then reality sank in, brutal and unrelenting. His knees nearly buckled as a guttural sound ripped from his chest. He roared—a scream so raw, so filled with anguish that the very stones of the chamber seemed to tremble. His fist shot forward before he could stop himself, driving straight into the wall. Stone cracked, dust showered down, and a jagged hole gaped in the surface.
It was agony because he had just damned himself in the name of surviving long enough to reach her. He had given in, marked another, broken every vow for the chance to find her again.
*****
