Chapter 121

The roadside pub is exactly the kind of place Draco and his men would normally avoid.

It is too exposed, with too many potential witnesses. But tonight, distance from the city matters more than discretion.

He sits at a wooden table, nursing a whiskey, his expression fixed in a permanent stormy look, while his pack spreads out around the space.

The conversations are muted and careful.

Everyone can feel the weight of what they’ve left behind.

Draco doesn’t even know where he’ll take them next.

Raven wasn’t the only thing he sacrificed for Carla’s sake. He can tell his people aren’t happy that they had to leave too.

For the first time in the years they’ve been together, they’d finally found a place that welcomed them.

They didn’t feel like rogues or outcasts, nor were they treated that way.

They were even respected and honored.

They had an identity, and they were beginning to blend in and settle.

And he’d had to rip them away from all of that.

But what else could he do?

Leaving was the