Kaelen's POV
For a brief moment, she struggled against the guards with unexpected force. Not with any trained technique or warrior's skill, but with the raw desperation of someone who believed she had already lost everything that mattered.
Then she raised her head.
That was when I recognized her.
Beta Rhiannon.
The mother of Jaxson.
I had encountered her countless times throughout the years. She had always maintained herself with quiet grace. Poised and steady in a way that naturally inspired confidence in others.
The woman before me now was barely recognizable from those memories.
Her dark hair had escaped whatever style she had arranged it in earlier and now fell in messy tangles around her shoulders. Mud stained the fabric of her dress and marked one side of her face like she had stumbled repeatedly during her journey here. The material was wrinkled and disheveled, the bottom edge darkened with grime.
But her eyes captured my attention completely.
