My consciousness returned slowly, fighting through a thick, suffocating fog of lingering agony. Every breath felt like inhaling shards of broken glass. The space in my chest where the golden tether of my mate bond had once resided was now a hollow, bleeding cavern. Yet, beneath the phantom pain of the severance, there was a profound, terrifying quiet.
For the first time in two years, the oppressive hum of Caleb’s expectations was gone.
I opened my eyes, blinking against the soft, warm light filtering through heavy velvet curtains. I wasn't in the damp, pine-scented packhouse of the Blood Moon Pack anymore. The air here was entirely different—crisp, carrying the faint, metallic tang of ancient stone, deep winter frost, and the overwhelming, grounding scent of dark earth and ozone. The sce
