Chapter 43

Older Dior

Love makes us weak and brings us down to our knees, but the lack of it is worse—loneliness makes us do scary things, Alice, and if there is any emotion stronger than hate and love combined, its possessiveness, the seed growing within me.

"I'm sorry," I drag a cold hand over Alice's face, closing her eyelids. I mull over my following words before speaking them, despite knowing the witch put into trance can't possibly hear me from her mental prison. "I lied to you, little witch, and while that was always my intention, I never expected to care about you. You're my only friend, Alice."

I'm speaking the truth. After my pack members died in the battle against June, I never thought my heart would grow to care about another person whose name isn't Patricia.

I was wrong.

Alice is a fresh breeze in my life. She makes me laugh when everything is dark, but my mind is already set. I want Patricia to be min