Chapter 150: Why Did He Cry With Me?

Adeline’s POV~

"You feel deeply ashamed about everything you don’t know," Adrian continued.

"And the people around you know it. They use that shame against you like a weapon. They feed you filthy, disgusting lies about your parents being traitors, just so they can feel superior to you. Just so they can laugh at your expense."

A heavy tightness closed around my throat, cutting off my air.

"I know you have spent years silently digging through every shadow for anything you could find," he whispered, his eyes locked onto mine with terrifying clarity.

"Any tiny scrap of information. A name, a face, an old rumor, a single sentence in a book. You would take anything at all. And I know why you are so terrified every single day, Adeline. You have no pack to protect you. You have no family standing behind your back. You know absolutely nothing about your own bloodline. And to the rest of the cold world... that makes you look like easy prey."

I stood paralyzed under his gaze, unable to blink, unable to defend myself.

"But despite all of that, you walk around acting like nothing on this earth can ever hurt you," he murmured, his own voice wavering just a tiny fraction.

"You smile bright when your heart is breaking into a thousand pieces. You laugh off the insults when you are dying inside. You pretend with all your strength that you don’t care about any of it, because you believe that if you ever let a single person see you bleed... they will use it to finish you off. You always pretend like you don’t care, like it doesn’t break you at all."

A single, scalding tear spilled over my lashes and tracked slowly down my cheek. I didn’t even have the energy to wipe it away.

"When everything around you falls apart into absolute chaos," Adrian whispered softly, "you don’t cry in front of anyone. You break quietly, in total silence, deep inside your own mind where no one can ever see you. Because you would rather shatter into pieces all by yourself in the dark than let a single person see you look weak."

He took a slow, heavy breath, his chest rising and falling.

"But you are not weak, Adeline. You are the strongest, most resilient person I have ever met in my entire life."

Before I could process his words or find the breath to say a single thing, he stepped forward and wrapped his broad arms completely around me.

He pulled me flat against his chest. He was warm, solid, and undeniably safe in a way that terrified me to my very core.

My chin landed heavily in the crook of his neck. My arms hung awkwardly at my sides, stiff, frozen, and completely unsure of what to do. I didn’t know how to navigate this.

His lips rested right against the shell of my ear, his warm breath fanning across my skin.

"I know you, Adeline," he whispered, his grip tightening around my shoulders. "I truly know you, and I understand every single ounce of your pain. So please... Don’t pretend with me. You don’t have to."

And just like that, something inside me completely shattered.

I didn’t even understand why it happened. Maybe it was because these were the exact words I had spent my entire lonely life waiting for someone, anyone, to say to me.

Everyone I had ever trusted had lied to my face. High-level alphas had been trailing my steps all night. The royal bedroom had been wired with a hidden listening device. This entire terrifying day had beaten me down until I was practically nothing but a hollow shell.

And now, this mysterious stranger who carried all the dangerous secrets of my past was holding me under the moonlight like I was something precious worth protecting.

My body moved entirely on its own instinct.

My hands slowly rose from my sides, sliding up his back, my fingers tightly gripping the fabric of his dark jacket. I buried my face into his shoulder and hugged him back, desperate, and clinging to him like a drowning person catching a lifeline in a storm.

The tears came pouring out of my eyes, and I didn’t fight them. I just let them fall.

I lost all track of time as we stood together on that lonely bridge. The river rushed loudly over the rocks below us, the cold night wind howled through the high branches, and the heavy, terrifying scent of the hidden alpha guards still lingered silently in the dark woods around us.

And then, right against my ear, I heard it.

A tiny, choked sniff.

A faint, broken sound brushed against my hair.

I went completely rigid in his arms.

Wait...

Is he...?

"Adrian...?" I whispered into his neck, my voice muffled by his jacket. "Are you... crying?"

"No!"

The response came out far too fast. His voice was thick, raspy, and completely ruined, giving him away in an instant.

He was actually crying.

I tried to pull my head back so I could look up at his face, but his arms instantly tightened like steel bands around my shoulders, pressing my head firmly back against his chest.

"Adrian?" I murmured, my heart hammering against my ribs.

"Wait..." he choked out, his voice rough and raw with an emotion he couldn’t hide. "Don’t look at me right now."

"Why are you—"

"Just stay like this for one second, Adeline," he pleaded softly, his chest shuddering against mine.

I stopped struggling immediately. I stayed completely still in his embrace.

I felt his chest heave once, then twice, as he fought a desperate, silent battle to regain control of his breathing.

I heard the faint rustle of his heavy jacket as he lifted one trembling hand to wipe his wet face, while his other arm never loosened its protective grip around my shoulder. He took a long, shaky, ragged breath. In... and out.

Finally, after a long moment of silence, his tight grip loosened.

He stepped back slowly.

I lifted my head and looked up at his face.

His dark eyelashes were wet. The corners of his eyes were bloodshot and red. The suave, polished, untouchable courtier who had offered a charming smile to the dark forest was completely gone.

The man standing before me looked stripped raw, like someone who had been forced to carry an unbearable, crushing weight across years of solitary silence.

He was definitely crying.

My mind spun in utter disbelief. Why? Why on earth would a stranger cry for me? Why would he stand in the dark and weep with me over my past?

Adrian raised his right hand. His fingers were trembling slightly as he reached out and gently brushed the wet tear tracks off my cheek with his thumb.