(Connor’s POV)
A month passed. For thirty days, I woke reaching for Aria through a bond that was no longer there. No healer could touch the pain it left behind.
The severance had left her alive somewhere beyond our territory. That knowledge should have helped.
Instead, every morning began with the memory that she had chosen an outlawed ritual over one more night with us.
Caleb shouted at pack members over late patrols and crooked table settings. At night, his footsteps crossed the room beside mine until dawn.
He never spoke Aria’s name during those rages. Once the doors closed, he paced until dawn and started again the next night.
I lay awake and saw Aria pinned beneath my hands. Whenever I started to drift off, the monitor flattened again.
The pack changed with us. Without its Luna
