Chapter 18

Kristoff

After the announcement, I refused to leave my quarters. Despair gripped me as I replayed the moment my fated mate rejected me. I lost interest in everything, yearning to be lifted from my sadness and forget the pain that consumed me.

It was over. Ari was gone from my life.

What else could I do but drown myself in alcohol, a silent companion during these difficult times? It was like this bitter escape I held onto, not giving a damn about eating or drinking water. I was engulfed in these intense waves of self-hate, suffocating me from the inside out. In a fit of rage, I threw a glass across the room, and the sound of it breaking into thousands of tiny pieces, mixed with the smell of spilled alcohol, mirrored my own emotional mess breaking apart.

Despite being the crown alpha of one of the strongest packs in the land, I felt like the world's biggest failure. I had this fancy title of Jarl, but when it came down to it, I couldn't even protect the one thing that mattered most to m