ALDRIC

Seeing Valeria so wounded and vulnerable was breaking my heart while, at the same time, a relentless rage grew inside me.

“He” was fighting to break free—to comfort her, to lick her wounds.

I could feel him scratching at my mind, trying to take over.

Being so close to losing her only reinforced my fears.

She could vanish from my world in an instant, never to return.

I scanned the scene—the group of warriors, two naked women clinging to each other, trembling in a corner, a mutilated slave