Chapter 4

Thalyn's POV

After the bone marrow extraction, they began drawing my core blood. I was too weak to move. I could only feel the blood flowing through the tube toward Querida in the next room.

Kairo's voice drifted through the wall.

"How are you feeling, baby?"

"So much better," Querida replied. "You're so good to me, Kairo."

"You know I'll always protect you."

Their laughter reached me as my breathing grew shallow. The mate bond between Kairo and me began to tear, each breaking thread pulling away the last of my strength.

In the next room, Kairo suddenly fell silent.

Through the fading mate bond, I felt a sharp surge of panic from him. His wolf's distress bled through the last fragile thread connecting us. I couldn't see him, but I felt the fear he was trying to suppress.

"Impossible," he muttered. "She won't die. She's tougher than nails."

He turned back to Querida, whose cheeks had regained their color.

"I'm fine," he said. "Just tired."

"Then rest," Querida murmured. "Once her blood has finished purifying my system, we can hold the mating ceremony."

"Of course," he replied. "She's only a donor. She'll be fine."

I no longer had the strength to hear any more.

The monitors beside me let out a long, shrill alarm. The healer glanced at the screen and removed his mask.

"Her heart has stopped. Her body was too weak."

He made no attempt to revive me.

From the next room, Querida called out, "What's that sound?"

"Nothing," the healer answered over the intercom. "A faulty monitor. The procedure was successful. You can rest easy."

"Wonderful!" Querida exclaimed. "Kairo, now we can finally be together!"

The healer ordered the staff to remove the tubes and dispose of my body. He didn't want my death to disturb the new Luna's recovery.

My consciousness rose above the operating table. I watched them place my thin, battered body into a black bag.

The mate bond snapped completely. In the next room, the champagne glass in Kairo's hand shattered, sending golden liquid across his clothes.

"What happened?" Querida asked.

Kairo stared at the broken glass. For a moment, he looked as if something inside him had been torn away.

"Nothing," he said at last. "Poor-quality glass."

I couldn't leave the Briarhold Pack's territory. Some invisible force held my spirit there, forcing me to watch.

The celebration carried on. Querida accepted congratulations while Kairo kept rubbing his chest, unable to shake the hollow feeling inside him.

When my parents arrived at the medical room, they found it empty. The healer told them I'd survived and gone back to my room to rest.

Later, Kairo asked where I was. The healer repeated the lie.

"She's resting in her room. She needs time to recover."

Kairo frowned. "Have her see me tomorrow morning. The matter of the sacred relic still needs to be settled. She owes the Lodestar Alliance an apology."

The next morning, Kairo sat at the dining table, his breakfast untouched.

"Go get Thalyn," he ordered Beta Favian.

Ten minutes later, Favian returned, his face pale.

"Alpha, I checked with the medical staff and the guards. Thalyn was never taken back to her room after surgery."

Kairo stood. "Then where is she?"

Favian hesitated. "The staff logged a black body bag being taken to the abandoned warehouse in the back hills last night. No name was recorded."

Kairo's face went rigid. "Find out whose body it was. Now."