"Valeric." Stella moved closer to him, but he lifted his hands at her, prompting her to stop. "Valeric-"
"Don't come close to me." His father's mocking laugh, that molten hotness mounting and mounting without an end, rang in his ears like a resounding alert bell. "Please." He ruffled his hair, covering the scar with it.
A half gasp tore wretchedly through Stella's throat as she watched the man withdraw further and further away from her into the shadows until his body hit the wall and he slid to the floor on his bum. "Don't come close." At this point, it didn't even feel like he was talking to her, it just felt like he was referring to someone else.
Why? What happened to him? What happened to a first prince like him, a supreme alpha like him to...
Valeric bit into his lips, hands numb and shaking by his side.