Lycan's Prey by Jessica Hall

Chapter 241

He pulls back just enough to look up at me, his face a mix of anguish and guilt. “She said she didn’t realize what she’d done. But it doesn’t matter, does it? Whether she knew or not, she let him in and still helped them. She betrayed Jacinta. She betrayed Max.” He trails off, his voice thick with emotion.

“You didn’t have a choice,” I tell him firmly, cupping his face in my hands. “Soren, look at me.”

His eyes meet mine, and I see the torment there, the self- loathing he’s trying so hard to hide.

“You did what you had to do to protect your staff, to protect your family,” I say, my voice steady. “She made her choices, Soren. Not you. This isn’t your fault.”

He shakes his head, his jaw clenching. “She helped raise Max. She was a part of this family, Aubrey. It still feels wrong, Jacinta loved her, Max loved her, everyone did. They all saw, all of them. Mary may never forgive me.”

I kneel in front of him, taking his hands in mine. “She’s gone because she made a terrible mistake, and she knew that, she just made sure you didn’t live with the consequences of killing her,” I say gently. “You’ve done everything possible to protect this kingdom, Soren. And sometimes that means making impossible choices. But you did the right thing.”

slowly, he nods, but I can see the weight of it

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his forehead. “Max won’t

main reason she did it, it wasn’t just for

me close, and I let him hold me, let him draw whatever comfort he can from me because other than that I can’t offer him anything else. For now, that’s all I can give him. And I know Max won’t take this news well tomorrow. He may have thought she was old and slow, and smelled funny, but

The Next Day

that hums with tension, where every creak and every distant sound feels amplified, stretching the silence even

and I don’t blame him. He adored her, trusted her, and to find out she betrayed all of us–it shattered something inside him. He spent most of the morning locked in his room, refusing to come out. When I tried to comfort

of them have been playing quietly in the garden under the watchful eyes of the guards. I stood by the window earlier, watching them. Max’s laughter is still missing, his usual sparkle dimmed. Even from this distance, I could see the heaviness in his little shoulders, the way

to make