LOGINCHAPTER 117LUCIENI swung the sword so hard the training dummy split in half with a loud crack. Wood shards flew everywhere. I did not stop. I grabbed another blade and attacked the next target, sweat pouring down my back, my shirt sticking to my skin. Every strike was for the frustration boiling inside me. Rowan had been locked in that room for too long. He would not speak to us. He would not eat properly. He would not let us in. The silence was driving me insane.I roared and drove the blade through another dummy, splitting it clean down the middle. “Fuck this!” I shouted to the empty yard. The few guards who had been watching quickly looked away and found reasons to be elsewhere. Everyone had been avoiding me lately. I did not blame them. In the last few weeks I had killed three servants for small mistakes. One spilled my wine. Another looked at me too long. I tore their throats out without thinking. I was not in control anymore.I threw the sword down and stormed out of the sparr
CHAPTER 116DANTEI sat behind the heavy oak desk in my private office, the weight of the past weeks pressing down on me like a stone. Rowan still refused to open his door. Not a single word in days. The guilt and frustration had turned all three of us into shadows of ourselves. Lucien was more volatile than usual, Kade had gone quiet even for him, and I could barely sleep without seeing those cursed photographs in my mind. The palace felt colder without Rowan’s presence. I rubbed my temples slowly, trying to push the headache away, when the door opened without a knock.Three nobles stepped inside, led by Lord Harrington and flanked by two lesser lords whose names I barely cared to remember. They bowed stiffly, but their faces showed clear unease mixed with entitlement.I did not stand. I simply looked at them with cold eyes. “What do you want? Speak quickly. I am not in the mood for wasting time.”Lord Harrington cleared his throat. “Your Majesty, we have come on behalf of several so
CHAPTER 115ROWANI stayed curled up on the floor of my bedroom for what felt like days, maybe even weeks. Time had lost all meaning behind the locked door. The kings kept coming. They knocked, they pleaded, they left notes under the door and clothes that carried their scents. Varynia had tried too, her voice soft and worried through the wood, begging me to let her in just for a moment. I never answered any of them. I could not. Every time I heard their voices, the shame crashed over me again like a wave I could not escape.I kept replaying everything in my head until it felt like my mind was tearing itself apart. The village where I was born. Omegas there were nothing but property. From the time I was ten, alphas and betas would grab me whenever they wanted. They touched me, used my mouth, laughed while I cried. By twelve I was sold to the brotherhood that ran the local brothel. They groomed me like a prized toy. The owners would not let anyone penetrate me until I turned sixteen, bu
CHAPTER 114KADEWe walked into the medical wing together, the three of us still carrying the heavy silence from another failed attempt at Rowan’s door. Alastair had been released from intensive care only yesterday, but Percival wanted him to stay one more night for observation. The moment we stepped into his private room, Alastair looked up from the bed and raised an eyebrow.“Well, well. The three kings of Varynia finally decided to visit the living,” he said dryly. “You all look like shit. Sit down before I fall asleep again.”Dante pulled up a chair closest to the bed. “How are you feeling, cousin?”“Better than you three, clearly,” Alastair replied. He shifted against the pillows and studied our faces. “What the hell happened? Varynia told me Rowan has locked himself in his room and won’t speak to anyone. She said something about old pictures. Start talking.”I sat on the edge of the bed, my voice low. “We found files on Rowan’s past. Pictures from before the academy. He was… use
CHAPTER 113LUCIENTwelve hours. We had been standing outside Rowan’s door for twelve fucking hours, taking turns knocking, begging, and pleading with him to open up. My voice was hoarse from speaking so much, but he still gave us nothing. Not a single word. Not even the sound of movement. Just cold, stubborn silence behind that locked door.Dante finally stepped back, rubbing his temples. “This is not working. He is not going to open the door tonight.”I slammed my fist against the wood one last time. “Rowan, come on. We are not angry at you. We are angry at the people who hurt you. Open the damn door so we can talk properly.”Still nothing.Kade looked completely wrecked. “We should give him space for now. Pushing harder might make it worse.”I hated it, but he was right. We walked away from the door together, our footsteps heavy down the hallway. I headed straight to my study, my blood boiling with frustration and something much darker underneath. I slammed the door behind me and c
CHAPTER 112KADEI stood in the war room with my fists clenched so tightly my knuckles turned white. The guilt was eating me alive. This was my fault. I had seen the files first. I had reacted with anger instead of understanding. I had pushed Rowan away when he needed me most. Now he had locked himself in his room and refused to see any of us. The weight of what I had done pressed down on my chest until I could barely breathe.Dante paced back and forth near the table, his face hard with frustration. “He lied to us, Kade. For months he has been hiding that he is an omega. Those pictures show exactly what kind of life he came from. How are we supposed to trust him after this? And you knew and didn't tell us?”I felt something snap inside me. Before I could stop myself, I stepped forward and shoved Dante hard against the wall. “That is all you have to say? He lied? After everything we just saw? Those pictures show a boy being destroyed over and over again. And your first reaction is to
DANTE I had searched the entire east wing twice over and still found no sign of Rowan, which irritated me more than I cared to admit because the boy had become something of a habit in my thoughts lately and the fact that he was nowhere to be found after the events of the previous night left a shar
CHAPTER 39 DANTE My eyes dropped over him the second I stepped fully inside and shut the door behind me with a soft but final click. Rowan stood there completely naked, skin still glistening from the shower, droplets trailing slow down his lean chest and stomach before disappearing into the dark
CHAPTER 36ROWANI spent the entire day avoiding everyone, especially the kings, because the last thing I needed was another encounter that would leave me feeling small and worthless all over again. After Lucien’s cold reminder that I was nothing but a pet bought off an auction block, I decided the
CHAPTER 34ROWANVarynia had left quietly after that slap still echoed in the room, her footsteps fading down the corridor until the only sound left was the steady beep of Kade’s monitors and the faint rasp of his breathing through the oxygen mask. She had hugged me tight one last time, whispering







