Chapter 12 Alpha's Mate

• Mira's imagined vision of me as a palace maid made me chuckle softly, a brief relief from the heaviness in my heart. But those chuckles soon transformed into tears that flowed freely down my cheeks, like the bitter release of emotions I had tried to suppress.
• Why did they have to come back now, after I had fought so hard to erase them from my life? Lucian, with his coldness and cruelty, and my mother, with her heartless manipulation – they were both responsible for my past misery, and now they were here to torment me again.
• I had finally begun to build a new life, one where their shadows didn't loom over me. But their return shattered that fragile peace, bringing back memories and the pain I had hoped to leave behind.