Leon's fingers tightened around the woman's collar as though every muscle in his arm locked at once. The words kept replaying inside his skull, louder than the pounding of his heart.
"Your mother… the queen."
The woman clung to his wrist, legs trembling beneath her. Her breaths were shallow, rapid, like a creature cornered by a predator. And that was exactly what Leon had become in that moment — a predator.
"Do you even understand what you're saying?" Leon growled, voice shaking with restrained fury. His eyes shimmered dangerously, catching the faint glow of his Lycan blood. "Do you have any idea what it means to accuse the Queen?"
"I– I only did what I was told," the woman whimpered. Her apron, stained with flour and broth, crinkled beneath his grip. "I swear, Your Highness, I didn't choose it myself. I–I only obeyed!"
Obeyed whom? His mother?
Leon's nostrils flared. A strange, burning ache crawled up his chest — anger, yes, but beneath it… something colder, sharper.
