(Kieran POV)
I returned to the castle as the moon began its descent, my human form reasserted through sheer force of will and several hours of running through forest that had absorbed my rage without judgment. My clothes hung in tatters, shredded by the violent shifts between forms that had marked my flight from the courtyard. Blood seeped from scratches where branches had caught skin too focused on escape to notice minor obstacles.
But the physical damage was nothing compared to the devastation in my chest. I'd destroyed everything. Weeks of careful courtship, of building trust through patience and restraint, undone in the space of heartbeats because I'd lost control at the worst possible moment.
The castle felt different as I approached—quieter, weighted with the kind of silence that
