Chapter 161

ARIA'S POV

The room was too quiet, the kind of quiet that makes you hear your own thoughts a little too loudly.

I sat on the edge of the hospital bed, my fingers picking nervously at the blanket covering my lap. The fluorescent lights buzzed faintly overhead, casting a pale glow on the plain white walls. A faint antiseptic smell lingered in the air, and the soft beeping of monitors in nearby rooms broke the silence.

I was still alone. The professor had left hours ago, and though I had tried to relax, I couldn’t stop replaying his words in my mind.

“Kieran is our lost prince. And without him, our pack has been suffering.”

My head was spinning. Was it really true? Was Kieran really the Alpha heir he described? And if so, why hadn’t he told me? I thought I knew him—or at least, I thought I was beginning to. But now… now I wasn’t so sure.