Chapter 31
That morning, as I was changing, a searing pain shot through my heart.
Pain! Danger! Seraphine howled in agony.
“What’s happening?” I cried out, tears streaming down my face.
I don’t understand this pain, my wolf whimpered.
Energy drained from my body. I fell to my knees, trying to make sense of what was happening. I lost all sense of direction. My skin burned with fever. I had never experienced such soul–tearing pain before.
I screamed aloud, my breathing shallow and rapid. I felt utterly weak
I lay on the floor for early an hour, enduring waves of pain, until finally, I passed out.
When I awoke, I was still on the floor, feeling weaker than before. Looking out the window, I saw it was evening. How long had I been unconscious?
Something felt incomplete. I decided to check myself in the mirror.
I struggled to my feet and looked at my reflection. My face was pale, with the flush of fever on my cheeks.
Then I saw it. The mark on my neck was gone. Completely vanished, as though it had never existed.
“No!” I screamed, fingers desperately tracing the bare skin where my bond had been. “NO!”
I had begged Matthew to release me, had pleaded and demanded, but now that the moment had come, the pain was unbearable. A primal howl tore from my throat as I stared at my naked neck. Something fundamental had been ripped from me, leaving a gaping wound in my soul. I could no longer feel the pack bonds, the comforting hum of connection that had been with me since I was eighteen. Gone. All gone.
Memories of my life with Matthew crashed through me like a tsunami–the first time he kissed me under the full moon, the night he proposed, our wedding day when I thought nothing could ever tear us apart, the countless nights in each other’s arms, the fights, the reconciliations, the dreams we’d shared. Nine years of my life. Nearly a decade of love, built and destroyed.
I collapsed to the floor, my legs unable to support me as violent sobs racked my body. I screamed until my throat was raw, my fists pounding the tiles until my knuckles split and bled.
“I HATE YOU!” I shrieked, not knowing if I meant Matthew or Augustin or fate itself. “I HATE ALL OF YOU!”
The terrifying thought struck me like lightning, what if Augustin had gone to Forestvale and forced Matthew to do this? Or worse,
what if he had killed him?
“Matthew!” I wailed, curling into a ball as agony ripped through me. My wolf howled in mourning, her pain amplifying my own until I thought I would shatter from it.
In that moment, I wanted to die too. To simply stop existing in a world that had taken everything from me.
Who would have thought Matthew and I would become such tragic figures? From the moment we started dating, everything had seemed so perfect, so right. When we married, we were sure we’d found our forever. But fate had laughed at our plans, had mocked our love with the cruel twist of Isabelle’s arrival.
Please, please, let Matthew be safe, I prayed, tears streaming down my face. Don’t let him be dead because of me.
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Chapter 31
I couldn’t deny the truth any longer–despite everything, Matthew had been my rock, my confidant, my best friend, my entire world for nine years. The thought that I might never see him again, never get to say a real goodbye, broke essential inside me.
If we’d had a proper farewell, maybe the pain wouldn’t be so shattering. But our last words had been angry ones,
Hours passed as I lay curled on the cold floor, my body convulsing with grief, tears flowing until there was nothing left but dry, heaving sobs.
Now I was no longer anyone’s Luna. I had no pack. I was utterly, completely alone.
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