✦ Chapter 24 ✦
"Are you certain about this, Alpha Lucien?"
Adrian's voice carried a careful hesitation as he walked beside Lucien toward the palace gates. Confusion etched his features, not born of doubt in Lucien's authority, but of familiarity. He had known both Lucien and Vynn since childhood. He had seen the way Vynn once looked at her younger brother, fierce and protective to the point of obsession. This—whatever this was—did not align with the bond he remembered.
They halted just short of the gates as a middle-aged guard approached, bowing deeply before pulling them open. Lucien's long white hair was bound neatly into a low bun, his posture composed and unyielding. His golden eyes remained fixed on the gates as though they were not an exit, but a threshold he had crossed long ago.
