The damage they couldn't see.

"Please, let me go."

Seraphina's trembling voice followed her all the way to the guest room.

The physician walked beside her while the Lycan King's guards waited outside. Adrian followed closely behind, his mind still trapped in the image of his sister curled in the corner of that dark room.

He had never seen her like that.

Not even when she was a child frightened by thunderstorms.

"Seraphina," he said carefully. "The doctor needs to examine you."

She stopped walking.

For a moment, her eyes moved toward the physician's hands before returning to Adrian's face.

"I'm fine."

"You were screaming."

"I'm fine, Alpha Adrian."

The formal address struck him harder than her refusal.

"Stop calling me that."

She lowered her gaze.

The physician intervened gently. "Miss Vale, I won't do anything without explaining it to you first. I need to check your injuries and make sure you're physically all right."

Seraphina hesitated before finally nodding. The examination took longer than Adrian expected, he waited outside the room, pacing the corridor while memories crowded his thoughts.

Seraphina at eight, running to him after falling from a tree. Seraphina at twelve, crying against his shoulder after another child insulted her. Seraphina at sixteen, knocking on his bedroom door whenever she had a nightmare.

She had always come to him.

Even when she was angry, even when they argued, she had never looked at him as though he were a stranger.

So what had happened to her?

The door eventually opened.

The physician stepped outside, removing his gloves.

"How is she?" Adrian asked immediately.

The older man gave him a measured look.

"Physically, she is in a concerning condition."

Adrian's stomach tightened.

"What does that mean?"

"She is severely undernourished. Her body shows signs of prolonged nutritional deprivation, and I've found numerous old injuries at different stages of healing. Some appear to have healed poorly."

Adrian stared at him.

"Old injuries?"

"Yes. Combined with her physical condition and her extreme reaction to confinement, I'm concerned she may have experienced prolonged abuse."

For several seconds, Adrian couldn't speak.

"Abuse?" he repeated. "She was in a labor prison, not—"

He stopped.

Not what?

Not somewhere cruel enough to explain the fear he had witnessed?

He had never visited Blackthorn. He had never asked how prisoners were treated. He had simply assumed that Seraphina would serve her sentence and eventually return home.

The physician's expression hardened.

"Whatever happened there, it wasn't something I would dismiss as ordinary imprisonment."

Adrian looked toward the closed door.

"Did she tell you anything?"

"No. She refused to discuss her experiences."

"Why wouldn't she tell us?"

The physician studied him for a moment.

"Perhaps she doesn't want to talk about it. Perhaps she doesn't feel safe enough to do so. I cannot determine that without her cooperation."

Safe enough.

The words lingered unpleasantly.

Adrian had brought her home himself. He had expected her to be grateful, to complain about the prison, perhaps even to cry in his arms.

Instead, she had thanked him formally and retreated behind a wall he couldn't reach, he had blamed her silence on resentment.

Now, for the first time, he wondered whether he had mistaken fear for anger.

---

When Adrian entered the room, Seraphina was sitting on the edge of the bed, she had pulled her sleeves down over her wrists.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Fine."

"The doctor says you're malnourished."

She said nothing.

"He also found old injuries. Seraphina, what happened to you?"

Her fingers tightened around the fabric of her skirt.

"Nothing you need to worry about."

"Nothing?" His voice rose before he could control it. "You were terrified in that room. The doctor says you've suffered abuse, and you expect me to believe nothing happened?"

She flinched.

Adrian immediately fell silent, he had raised his voice and She had reacted as though he might strike her.

He took a step backward.

"I'm sorry," he murmured.

Seraphina looked at him cautiously. For one foolish moment, he thought she might finally tell him everything.

Instead, she stood.

"Thank you for bringing me home, Alpha Adrian."

Then she walked past him.

He remained beside the bed, staring at the empty space she had left behind.

---

Later that evening, Adrian returned to speak with the physician. He found the older man talking quietly with the head nurse near the medical room.

"Her condition is worse than I initially thought," the physician said. "The malnutrition, the accumulated injuries, and her reaction to confinement suggest this has been going on for some time."

Adrian stopped outside the doorway.

The physician lowered his voice further.

"Whatever happened to Seraphina during those two years, her family needs to understand that she didn't simply come home angry."

He paused before delivering the words that made Adrian's blood run cold.

"That girl has been surviving something terrible, and I fear none of you understands just how much damage has already been done.”