Chapter 146: Chapter 99

I shake my head, running a hand down my face. "I don't want to be responsible for more deaths, Bennett. I don't want anyone else to die for me." Because of me. I couldn't bear it. "They shouldn't want to die for me. I'm not anything to them."

"You don't have to hold the title of a queen for them to want to protect you," he says softly, as if his voice being a decibel too loud would snap me in half. "They don't even know what you are to them. They think you're the lost and found daughter of the Redmoon Alpha. They don't know who you're meant to be to them, and yet your people would do anything for you."

"They are not my people, Bennett!" I snap, vulnerable distress filtering through my voice. For the first time since he came into this room, our gazes lock. His gray eyes, pools of storm clouds, swirl with emotions I can't decipher. Regret, devastation — whatever it is, it's prominent. "They're yours. Not mine. They are meant to protect you. My people are all dead."