CHAPTER 276
~Darien's Point Of View~
Darien has always believed disappointment was a quiet thing.
A subtle ache. A small fracture you learn to live with. Something you swallow and bury under duty, discipline, and the promise that if you just try harder—if you are better, sharper, stronger, it will eventually go away.
He was wrong.
Disappointment is loud. It is violent. It is the sound of something sacred shattering inside your chest with no intention of ever fitting back together again.
His father's face won't leave him alone.
The way the Alpha looked at him in court without regret, not even with anger, but with cold certainty. As if Darien were a problem he had finally decided to cut loose. A failed investment. A son who had chosen wrong.
Like the pack hasn't just lost its heirs.
He exhales slowly through his nose, jaw tight enough to ache. All his life. All of it.
