The heavy vial of suppressant medicine sat on the table like a lead weight between them. Alaric stared at it, his vision blurring as a crushing realization hit him. Silas had taken that medicine not just to hide, but to erase the very bond that connected them. He had preferred the numbness of a drug to the touch of his Prince.
Alaric moved, but he didn't tower over Silas this time. Instead, the great Alpha Prince sank to his knees on the cold floor, his large frame trembling. He reached out, his fingers hovering near Silas's hand but too afraid to make contact.
"I know," Alaric choked out, his voice cracking—a sound so raw and broken it seemed impossible coming from a royal. "I know I am not a man to be loved. I am a monster, a creature of blood and shadows. I have spent my life taking what I wanted, never asking if the heart I claimed was willing."
Silas finally turned his head, his eyes widening in shock. He had seen Alaric kill; he had seen him destroy fortresses; but he had never seen him small.
A single, heavy tear escaped Alaric's eye, tracing a path down his scarred cheek. Then another followed. The Prince was weeping—not out of anger, but out of a terrifying, hollow despair. He looked up at Silas, his blue eyes drowning in grief.
"You took that medicine because you couldn't stand the smell of me," Alaric whispered, the words catching in his throat. "You wanted to kill the bond because being tied to me felt like a death sentence. And I know... I know you can't love a monster like me. You can't love the man who turned your world into a cage."
Alaric bowed his head until his forehead touched Silas's knee. His broad shoulders shook with silent, jagged sobs. The most wicked Alpha in the North was falling apart at the feet of a ghost.
"But please," Alaric begged, his voice a broken plea that made the very air in the room feel heavy. "Even if you hate me... even if you can never look at me without seeing a demon... don't run. Don't go back into the dark. If you leave me again, there will be nothing left of me but the monster. I can't do this without you, Silas. I can't breathe in a world where you aren't here."
Silas watched the tears fall onto his own hand. The sight was devastating. He had spent so long fearing the Prince's power that he hadn't realized he held the Prince's life in his own hands. For a moment, the silence in the room was absolute, filled only by the sound of a King's heart breaking. Silas realized then that Alaric wasn't crying for his pride or his kingdom. He was crying because he was terrified of being alone in the dark again.
Alaric didn't move to kiss him. He didn't demand a thing. He just stayed there on his knees, a broken man waiting for a judgment he was certain he deserved.