"What exactly happened?" Asher asked, his voice low but heavy with urgency. He squatted before the kneeling Bear King, his brows furrowed in concern and growing dread. "If she was this dangerous… how was it that none of you knew?"
Thammuz's massive shoulders rose and fell as he drew a long breath. His piercing blue eyes met Asher's golden gaze, weary and haunted.
"That crown," Thammuz rasped. "It changed her."
He spoke slowly, as if every word weighed a hundred years.
"She said it herself. The urge to grow, to conquer, to dominate, it roared within her like a rabid beast, caged and thrashing inside her skull."
Asher's jaw clenched. The realization of what had happened and what had been lost weighed heavily on him. Twenty thousand bear warriors, known for their raw strength and unwavering discipline… gone. They could have stood behind him, and made his army greater!
But something else tugged at his thoughts, something that pulled deeper than the pain of lost numbers.
