Aiden POV

I had spent my life trying to be the perfect heir, but standing in the ruins of the villa, I finally understood the truth.

I was a coward hiding in a king’s shadow.

The scent of ozone and rot clung to the air, a physical weight pressing into my chest and making my wolf howl in shame. I should not even be here. My father, Kael, had stripped me of my rank and banished me to the fringes of the Hollows after I sided with Darius. I had let my jealousy of a child—a toddler who stole my ...