---- Chapter 24 No.24 Aria POV: Below us on the ground, Damien let out a furious roar and started to charge, but Silas, who had appeared from nowhere, caught his arm. "Let him have his goodbye," Silas murmured, his own face a mask of sorrow. "It's all he has left." Kaelen pulled away from the kiss, his eyes full of a strange peace. He gently pushed me back, away from the edge. "Don't feel sad for me, Aria," he whispered, his smile serene. "I'm not worth your tears." Then he turned, and with no hesitation at all, he stepped off the edge of the turret. | lunged forward with a cry, my fingers brushing against the fabric of his jacket but catching only air. | watched, horrified, as he fell, his body growing smaller and smaller. He didn't scream. He just kept that sad, peaceful smile on his face until he met the stone courtyard below with a final, sickening impact. As he fell, | saw him rip the silver bomb from his chest. With the last of his strength, he hurled it far away, into the empty forest, where it detonated with a harmless, muffled crump. ---- He never intended to hurt anyone. Only himself. My ceremony with Damien continued, my heart a strange, hollow drum in my chest. | became the Luna of the Onyx Fang Pack, a queen with a new kingdom and a new king. It was Silas who arranged for Kaelen's burial. | saw him later, standing before the simple gravestone, pouring a bottle of expensive whiskey onto the fresh earth. "| hated your guts when you were alive," Silas said to the stone, his voice thick. "But now... now | get it." He took a long drink from the bottle. "We wolves are born alone, and we die alone. I'll carry this loneliness for you, for all of them. I'll stay and protect her." He looked at the grave, a bitter smile on his face. "This whole mess...| had a hand in it too, didn't |? I'll see you in hell, Kaelen. We'll have a lot to talk about." He touched the bottle to the cold gravestone, a final toast, then turned and walked away, leaving the ghost of the fallen Alpha to his eternal rest.