Just look my way

Returning to Ardent had been a… bittersweet experience, to say the least. More bitter than sweet if he was being honest. He had left Boreas at the height of his family’s power, abandoning the thriving Klein empire for a brave and daring rescue of his princess girlfriend when she had been captured. It had been an adventure of a lifetime tracking her down and saving her from the slavers that would have sold her off like property, and in the end what had his reward been for risking his life and limb for her?

She broke up with him.

Fiametta had unceremoniously dumped him as they neared Boreas, claiming she needed time to work on herself and heal. Stolas had tried his best to pretend like he was on board and this was a mutual breakup, but it was all a mask to hide the anguish he felt at having his heart ripped from his chest once again. And just like last time, it had all come right after he and Fiametta had become intimate. The fallen prince was convinced that sex had ruined two of his relationships now. And worse still? When he returned home, there was no home left to return to. Ashen was gone, the Raiders in its place, and his family nowhere to be found. Stolas was in dismay, directionless, despondent. He had lost everything while trying to do the right thing.

Over the next few days, the once proud Klein prince wandered aimlessly south from Boreas and into Auster, choosing the temperate summer of the south over the frigid winter of the north. He had nowhere to go, no one to turn to, and no plan for his future. Everything he had ever had was gone. Even his observatory and his books... just gone. All he had left was his one grimoire and the meteorite and moonstone pendant that hung around his neck, glimmering faintly in the silvery moonlight. Eventually Stolas' paws brought him through the dense woods at the heart of Auster, the dire brute slinking quietly through the stillness of the night, his dark fur almost a perfect camouflage in the night. Silver moonlight streamed down through the gnarled tree branches overhead like little spotlights. All around, the sounds of nocturnal insects and animals could be faintly heard in the calm summer night.

Stolas breathed a sigh and stumbled forward, careful to avoid tripping over the roots of the trees he passed, though he cared little for if he fell. What more was physical pain added on to his emotional suffering? The prince took in a deep breath through his nose—and froze. A perfume of feminine pheromones hung on the air, a scent Stolas was familiar with—a fae in heat. But it wasn't just the primal instincts that roused his interest in the smell. It was who he smelled on those pheromones. It can't possibly be... Graphite eyes steeling, the brute surged forward, muscles rippling beneath his coat as he chased down the source of the perfume, all the while convincing himself that he was being tricked. But this was no trick. Rushing through the trees, Stolas pushed through some underbrush with a crunch of leaves and twigs under his giant paws, and there he saw her in the moonlit clearing.

"Widow..."

"Stolas"