The moment he spoke, the elite healers of the Royal Healing Circle behind him took over. The familiar presence of the Silvercrest royal bloodline swept into the room with them. My almost silent wolf stirred, just barely.
“Quick! Establish two IV lines! Prepare for an incision!”
They wheeled the emergency cart back and connected machines to my body.
Derek finally recovered from his shock.
“Who are you people?” he demanded. “This is Blackthorn Healing Sanctuary, property of the Blackwood family! Without Alpha Adrian breaking his blood seal…”
He never finished.
A Royal Guard kicked the back of Derek’s knee.
With a scream, Derek dropped hard to the floor.
The guard twisted his arms behind him and pinned him down.
“How dare you! You’re trespassing on pack sanctuary grounds!”
The Chief Healer shook with fear. Pointing at my grandfather, he yelled, “Alpha Adrian won’t let you get away with this!”
Grandfather didn’t spare him a glance.
His eyes were fixed on me as the healers fought to keep me alive.
The Royal Council Advocate beside him stepped forward and unfurled a takeover scroll marked with the Council Seal before the Chief Healer.
“Look carefully.”
“Fifteen minutes ago, Silvercrest Dominion lawfully assumed control of Blackthorn Healing Sanctuary. The High Moon Council has authorized the Royal Healing Circle to provide emergency treatment.”
“You are no longer permitted to run this sanctuary.”
“You deliberately prevented the Luna from receiving lifesaving care. That’s a serious violation of the Moonbound Code. The High Moon Council will investigate what you’ve done, and you will stand trial!”
The Chief Healer stared at the royal seal on the scroll. His legs gave way, and he collapsed onto the floor.
Derek finally understood how badly he’d miscalculated. He began to tremble.
The treatment room became an operating room.
A powerful anesthetic entered my vein. I knew consciousness would soon fade, but the mate bond connecting me to Adrian still lay across my heart like an open wound that would never heal.
I looked inward at the bond that had held us together for eight years. The warmth I’d once known was gone. I’d reached for Adrian through that bond countless times. Today, even my desperate pleas for help hadn’t reached him. My wolf lifted her head weakly, still yearning for the familiar presence of her mate. But I refused to let her keep waiting for someone who had abandoned us.
Grandfather’s warm hand closed tightly around my freezing fingers. I clung to that small warmth and steadied what remained of my consciousness. Then I told my wolf what I’d decided. She whimpered softly, reluctant to release eight years of connection, but at last she lowered her head.
“Elena, get some rest,” Grandfather whispered. “You’ll feel better when you wake up.”
I closed my eyes and reached deep into the last reserves of my Silvercrest royal bloodline.
Only those of royal blood could sever a fated mate bond without the other mate’s consent. And even then, the price was devastating.
My wolf whimpered deep within me. Already weakened by blood loss, she could barely lift her head.
Yet the moment she sensed what I intended to do, she struggled.
Eight years.
For eight years, she had known Adrian’s wolf as her other half. Even after everything he’d done to us, she still instinctively clung to that familiar presence.
But I couldn’t hold on anymore.
“Adrian Blackwood, I reject you as my mate.”
The mate bond pulled taut.
A searing pain tore through my chest as the connection binding our souls began to unravel.
I could feel it happening, strand by strand.
Each one snapped with a fresh wave of agony, dragging against my already weakened wolf.
She threw back her head and howled, desperately reaching for the mate she had loved for eight years.
I gritted my teeth.
I wouldn’t stop.
Then the final thread broke.
Adrian’s presence vanished.
The warmth that had lived inside me for eight years was gone, leaving nothing but silence.
My wolf let out one last, broken whimper before collapsing deep within my mind.
The backlash struck immediately.
Pain ripped through my body. My vision darkened, and my limbs turned ice-cold. Already drained by the blood loss, I had nothing left to withstand the force of severing our bond.
Even my wolf’s faint breathing seemed to disappear.
I tried to tighten my fingers around Grandfather’s hand, but I couldn’t summon the strength.
Tears slipped silently down my cheeks.
I was finally free of Adrian.
But that freedom had cost me the last of my strength.
As the Royal Healing Circle fought to save me, darkness swallowed me whole.
At the same time, in an exclusive treatment suite in Frostvale Territory.
With the Moonstone Healing Array forcibly transported from the Central Territories, Serena Vale gave birth to a healthy male pup without suffering any complications.
Adrian Blackwood sat beside her bed, holding a bowl of herbal broth.
Serena reclined against her pillows, her cheeks rosy.
“Adrian, this broth smells weird. I don’t want it.”
She pushed the spoon away with a pout.
Adrian smiled indulgently and set down the bowl.
“Then don’t have any. We’ll go pick out that necklace you liked later.”
The words had barely left his mouth when a tearing pain ripped through his chest. Without warning, the mate bond that had linked him to Elena for eight years was severed by her own will. Her familiar presence vanished.
His wolf roared in agony inside his mind, searching again and again along the broken bond. There was nothing left to sense. Not a trace of her.
“What’s wrong?” Serena asked, startled.
Adrian clutched his chest. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead.
He tried to reach Elena through the mate bond and found only dead silence. Her pale face flashed through his mind.
“Nothing. I probably haven’t slept enough.”
He rubbed his brow and checked his phone for reports from the Central Territories. Nothing had come in.
Derek usually sent a safety update every half hour. Three full hours had passed without a word.
Frowning, Adrian called him.
“The number you have dialed is switched off.”
His unease deepened. He called the Chief Healer’s direct line in the Central Territories.
No answer there either.
“Adrian, didn’t you promise you’d stay with me all day?”
Serena tugged unhappily at his sleeve.
Adrian pulled away, distracted. “Something’s come up with the pack. I need to make a call.”
He had no idea his punishment had only just begun.
Back in the Central Territories, the rescue operation lasted six hours.
By some miracle, both my child and I survived. My daughter was small and frail, but alive.
I opened my eyes slowly inside a sterile healing chamber. My wolf remained curled deep within my mind, unresponsive. Between the blood loss and the force it had taken to break the mate bond, I didn’t even have the strength to wake her.
The anesthetic had worn off, and the incision burned with every breath. Only the faintest warmth remained of my wolf’s healing power. I was too weak even to lift a hand.
Grandfather sat at my bedside. His eyes reddened as soon as he saw me wake.
“Elena? You’re awake. Does it still hurt?”
I shook my head and looked at him calmly. My wolf hadn’t recovered, and my chest still ached, but the mate bond that had bound me for eight years was gone.
I spoke through a dry, hoarse throat. “Grandpa, give me my backup phone.”
He looked surprised but handed it over.
I called Blackthorn Pack’s resource administrator.
He answered immediately. “Luna Elena.”
“Withdraw every bit of Royal Pack Support provided to Blackthorn Pack’s Northern Territory Expansion.”
My voice was ice-cold. “Within thirty minutes, dissolve every alliance guaranteed by Silvercrest Dominion.”
The subordinate responsible for royal resource coordination sounded horrified.
“But Luna Elena, the entire Northern Territory Expansion depends on your royal protection! If you withdraw it, our allies will abandon us and Blackthorn’s borders will be left exposed!”
“I know.”
I stared at the ceiling. A cold smile touched my lips.
“That’s exactly what I want. Let him see what his pack is worth without me.”