#Chapter 80: Chasing a ghost

I closed the door behind Kayden and let my polite mask slip off my face, frowning. Our conversation had been very enlightening but also very heavy. I wondered if Alexander had ever actually grieved his mother, or if he had only been distracting himself for the past decade. It was sad to think about holding onto pain like that for so long. He’d lost a part of himself when she died. That much was clear. And right at a time when the other part of him, what Alexander had referred to when last we spoke as “the absolute worst of him,” was needed most. He’d leaned into his role as Alpha when it was required and when it was also all he felt he had left. And he won a war as a result. Kayden was very earnest in insisting that Alexander was not heartless. I wondered what Alexander himself thought about that rumor. Whether he would deny it, like his friend did. I somehow doubted that he would. I for one did not believe it. Not entirely, at least. I knew that Kayden was right – people l