And then it started.
The ground trembled. The air thickened. Dust rained from the ceiling like ash.
“An… earthquake?” Freya shrieked, her bravado crumbling.
No. Not an earthquake.
A shift. A Moonfall's shift.
My pulse quickened. The ground was alive with something older than tectonics—magic, and it was primal and untamed.
Smoke unfurled like a living beast from the hallway. A fire sparked in the distance—an overloaded circuit or something darker. The scent of scorched fur and silver filled the air.
I tried to stand but collapsed, my weakened body giving in. Sharp pain lanced through my ribs. My wolf howled in the back of my mind, powerless.
“Ella!”
His voice. I heard Draven’s voice over the chaos.
“Alpha Draven, it’s not safe!” the housekeeper cried.
“Move!” he roared.
Footsteps thundered. Then I saw him, silhouetted against smoke and fire. He looked around, eyes frantic. He found Freya first, curled in a corner, sobbing.
She reached for him. “Draven! I’m scared!”
Without hesitation, he picked her up and turned to leave.
His gaze fell on me, sprawled and broken, glass glinting beneath my fingers.
Our eyes locked.
For a moment, I saw the man I once loved—the Alpha I once trusted.
But then he turned.
And left me.
The fire devoured everything.
The quake stopped, but the damage had already been done.
They searched the ashes. No one found me. No scent trail, no body.
Because I was already gone.
--
At the airport, I mailed off the last of my papers—my inheritance, the sealed documents, and something else… a blood-marked piece of fur that had once belonged to me and Draven.
A final rejection of the bond.
As I waited to board my flight under a new name, my phone vibrated.
It was Draven.
I pulled out the SIM card. Crushed it beneath my boot heel. Tossed it in the nearest trash.
The mate bond is now severed.
From this day forward, Draven Blackthorn, Alpha of the Blackthorn Pack, you and I are nothing.
Not mates.
Not partners.
Not even enemies.
Just strangers in the same cursed world.
