I stared at that handsome face of his, so perfectly composed, so perfectly human, and could not fathom the rottenness it concealed.
Because we were born lowly, our lives simply didn't matter?
Mine didn't. Rowan's didn't. And neither had the hundred-some families of the Hollowmere Pack.
I couldn't hold it in any longer. The words ripped out of me, raw and bleeding. "Is that what you told yourself when you slaughtered the Hollowmere Pack, my lord? That they were just a bunch of lowborn nobodies?"
Hadeon flinched as if I'd driven a blade between his ribs. His hand shot to my throat and squeezed, his eyes splitting gold with fury.
"Perenna, what nonsense are you spouting?!"
I struggled to break free, and the wound below tore open again. Blood soaked through the bedsheets in an instant.
Hadeon panicked at the sight. He gathered me into his arms, clumsy and desperate. "Perenna, stop moving. Please."
I pried his hands off me and glared straight at him. "Hadeon, you've been lying to me for years. Was it worth it?"
"Hundreds of lives. And my two pups. Don't you lose sleep at night?"
Hadeon's hand hung frozen in midair, trembling beyond his control.
"You know about all of it?"