She blinked, hands dropping, horror dawning on her face. “I didn’t mean to…” she said, “I didn’t think—”
“No,” he said, “you didn’t need to. You’ve shown me who you really are. I should thank you.”
Layla flinched as if struck.
Dominic turned away again, one hand pressed to the windowpane, his reflection blurring in the light. “You saved me a lot of heartache. Better I find out now. If you’d have told me,if you’d have just trusted me, perhaps things might have been different.”
Her voice broke. “You would have hated me.”
He didn’t answer because that was the worst part. She wasn’t wrong.
Layla’s shoulders sagged. The room was too quiet again. The bond between them throbbed faintly, carrying her grief like a heartbeat.
Dominic could feel it, but he couldn’t look at her.
When she finally spoke, her voice was raw. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I never wanted to hurt you.”
He closed his eyes, the words cutting deeper than he wanted them to.
But when he turned, his face was hard again, the Alpha’s mask restored. “Go,” he said.
Layla stared at him. “What?”
“Leave,” he said. “Before I say something I can’t take back.”
She didn’t move.
“Layla.” His tone left no room for argument.
Her eyes shimmered, wide and wet, “Dominic, please-”
“Go.”
The word came out in a snarl.
She flinched once, then turned. Her breath hitched, but she didn’t look back as she ran from the room. The door slammed behind her, the echo ricocheting off the walls.
Dominic stood in the silence she left behind, chest heaving, every muscle trembling with restraint.
The room still smelled of her, the faint trace of salt and smoke, the warmth of her magic he now knew it to be, and it made him sick.
He pressed his hands to the desk, bowing his head as if to pray, but no words came.
How could she?
How could she have looked him in the eye, spoken vows under Lunarion’s name, all while hiding the one thing that could destroy everything he’d built?
He paced the length of the study, each movement too sharp, too quick.
He had wanted to trust her, to believe in her. Against his own instincts, against the warnings of everyone who’d ever doubted her place at his side.
And now—
A soft knock cut through the storm of his thoughts.
Dominic’s head snapped up. “What?”
The door opened slowly, the hinges groaning. Julian stepped inside, expression grim.
