Chapter 4
A split second after the scream tore through the air, the wooden door was kicked off its hinges.
Silas stormed into the room. His gaze swept the room before his suffocating Alpha presence slammed into me, heavy enough to snap bone.
"Elara!"
He lunged forward, dropping to one knee. Clutching her wolfsbane-scorched legs, Elara predictably shrank into his embrace, weeping pitifully.
"Silas... I only came to beg Aria for forgiveness," she choked out between broken sobs, tears streaming down her flawless face.
"But she said... she said since I was lucky enough to give birth to a pureblood pup, she would use wolfsbane to ruin my womb, so I could never carry another child..."
Silas locked his deadly gaze on me, his voice a glacial hiss.
"Aria, even if you've lost your wolf, you have no right to use such vicious tactics against Elara!"
Sweeping Elara into his arms, he sprinted toward the emergency room.
At the same time, his hand locked around my wrist like a vise, ruthlessly dragging me into the adjacent infirmary. Every rough yank sent blinding agony through my shattered spine.
He shoved me into a medical chair and barked an order at the pack healer. "Elara is suffering from wolfsbane backlash. Draw double the usual amount of Aria's pureblood for backup immediately!"
"But Luna Aria is dangerously weak, she barely has an ounce of her wolf left..." the healer protested, all color draining from his face. "If I take double, she'll die!"
"I know her physical limits better than anyone. She won't die. Draw the blood!"
Terrified to disobey an Alpha command, the healer frantically shoved the emergency authorization form forward.
Without batting an eye, his gaze entirely consumed by his frantic worry for Elara, Silas stamped his Alpha signet ring onto the parchment.
The moment the bags were filled with my blood, he didn't spare me a single glance. He spun on his heel and rushed back to Elara's ward.
Barely held upright by the fading dregs of a numbing potion, I clung to the frigid wall, finding through the dizziness to half-crawl down the corridor in their wake.
When I finally reached the partially open door of her ward, the sight that greeted me stole the remaining breath from my lungs.
Elara had her arms draped seductively around Silas's neck, asking in a honeyed voice:
"Silas... how did you know at a glance that the wolfsbane in that vial was heavily diluted?"
Silas stroked her cheek with sickening affection. "I'm an Alpha. Do you think I can't distinguish the scent of real wolfsbane from a cheap knockoff?"
"But it doesn't matter. Let's just say it was her fault. I was scheduled to bleed her in a few days anyway by tradition. Taking a few extra bags of fresh pureblood today will speed up your healing and help your body seamlessly assimilate your new wolf."
My heart plummeted into a bottomless abyss. A bone-deep chill paralyzed my body.
Just as I turned away, overcome with absolute despair, my eyes unexpectedly locked with Elara's.
A wicked, triumphant smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth. In the next breath, she initiated a deep kiss with Silas.
"Silas... you're always so good to me. Since Aria's empty shell of a body can never give you an heir, let me continue to bear your pups to repay you. Please?"
"Elara... you just gave birth. And Aria is still my mate in name... We shouldn't, not right now..."
Despite the hollow words of refusal leaving his lips, Silas's body betrayed him, responding instinctively to her heavy, intoxicating scent.
"Silas... take me. I know... I've always been the one you truly desired, right?"
With a ragged groan, Silas's token restraint shattered.
"If you hadn't just given birth..." he growled with raw lust, pinning her to the mattress.
Mindful of her "injuries," he stopped short of taking her completely, but his hands roamed her body with possessive hunger as he devoured her mouth.
Amidst their heavy panting, his lips trailed down to the silver moon amulet on her collarbone, pressing a reverent kiss against it.
"Elara... ever since you risked your life climbing down the Shadow Cliffs to save me, my life has been yours. I will protect you until my last breath."
The sickening sounds of tangled limbs and breathless moans filtered out of the ward.
Staring at the two bodies tangled together on the hospital bed, tears fell silently down my cheeks, but a bitterly ironic smile twisted my lips.
Elara had crippling acrophobia. Since childhood, she couldn't even stand near a suspension bridge, let alone climb down a treacherous abyss to save a dying boy.
As for that silver moon amulet around her neck?
That was nothing more than a stolen trophy, ruthlessly snatched from me years ago after she threw a tantrum to our parents.
I wiped the moisture from my cheeks. My heart was completely, finally dead.
Slowly, I turned my back to the door.
I placed the Memory Orb—the undeniable magic proof of how they had cruelly stripped away my wolf—along with a Scrying Stone that captured their current infidelity, into a small wooden box. I handed it off to the night-shift nurse.
Next, I retrieved my Sending Stone and tapped out a brief, encrypted magical signal:
"The plan is moved up. Meet me at the border near the Black Obsidian Pack's infirmary. Now."
With my affairs in order, I slipped into an empty, unlit ward.
From my pocket, I pulled out the vial of forbidden potion obtained from a Shadow Witch.
It was a potent brew designed not only to induce a flawless death-like slumber, but to violently shatter a mate bond from the very depths of a soul.
Stripped of any lingering hesitation, I threw my head back and swallowed it all.
Searing agony cleaved through my soul. The mating mark on the crook of my neck burned with a deafening, agonizing silence.
The precise second the mark melted into nothingness, I peacefully closed my eyes.
Half an hour later, Silas stepped out of Elara's room, his lust-fueled frenzy abated.
Acting on instinct, he reached out through his senses to locate my scent. Nothing.
Annoyed, he pushed inward, viciously tugging at the mate bond to summon me.
Empty.
Where my soul should have been anchored, a terrifying void swallowed his consciousness.
The bond was snapped.
A marrow-deep panic seized his chest. Impossible.
His unyielding mask fractured entirely. Frantic, he blasted his aura outward again, only to be cut off by a terrified shriek.
"Alpha!" The night nurse sprinted down the corridor, deathly pale, clutching a wooden box.
"Luna Aria... the massive blood loss—her heart stopped!" The nurse sobbed, trembling violently. "The mating tie is completely withered. She's dead!"
Before he could even breathe, she shoved the box toward his frozen form. "She demanded you receive this final belonging... personally."
