Episode004
867 Words
Kaelan Vontigger POV
My heart pounded like a war drum as I jumped up in bed.
Something broke.
At first, I had no idea what it was. It might have been a dream. It might have been the wind rattling the walls outside our chambers like claws. However, no. There was no sound.
There was quiet.
In the back of my mind, there used to be a chilly, oppressive quiet where her heartbeat hummed.
Selene.
The bond had vanished.
Gone.
I ripped the blanket away and got to my feet. My wolf gave a low, restless, and perplexed howl. As usual, I reached inside to find her warmth, scent, and breath through the link that had bound us since the Moon Goddess herself.
Nothing.
No tug, no pain.
It's just an empty, dead thread.
She cut it off.
Or worse.
I hurried out of the room after yanking on my shirt. Irina's voice was sweet but poisoned as she stirred in the sheets.
She stretched like a cat and said, "Couldn't sleep?"
I paid her no attention.
"Are you still considering her?" She teased with a dipped voice.
"Avoid pushing it."
"Kaelan, you expelled her. She is no longer there. Now I'm here."
Her shoulders shone in the faint firelight as she sat up. "Don't say you're sorry you picked me."
At the door, my steps froze.
I'm sorry.
I didn't respond to her.
Couldn't.
Because perhaps, just possibly, I did for the first time in years.
The hallways still smelt of her.
Ghost-thin but powerful enough to destroy me.
I held onto the railing and gazed out past the pack walls into the snowstorm that was beginning to swirl.
Where?
The knock was swift and forceful.
"Alpha!" One of the guards, panting. Blood is present at South Ridge. New.
My blood froze.
"And?"
"Nobody."
I didn't mean for my voice to sound so sharp. "Nobody?"
He gave a head shake. However, it belonged to her. We smelt it. Powerful. There's more. It appeared to be a rogue fight, according to one of the scouts.
I shut my eyes.
That wild, unyielding Luna of mine. Entering rogue territory unaccompanied and expecting a child.
I clenched my fists.
I ought to have stopped her. I ought to have
Irina's voice cut in, syrupy smooth, "You're pacing again." Now, dressed in my old robe, she stood by the hearth as if she were supposed to be there.
She didn't.
She would never.
"That's what you always do when you're guilty."
"I'm not guilty," I whispered.
"All right". There is blood at the border after you ejected your pregnant partner in a storm. Fine.
I whirled around with her. "What do you know about that?"
Her mouth twisted. "Nothing". Simply... striking up a discussion.
I yelled, "You said something before." "That she wasn't destined to be Luna". That you ought to have been the one.
"It should still be."
As if she owned me, she moved in close and touched my jaw. I didn't get away quickly enough.
"I loved you first, you know that."
"You abandoned me first."
"Due to her. The Moon-damned mating bond, that is. If the Goddess hadn't pushed her into your arms, you would have picked me."
Jaw clenched, I swallowed.
"Kaelan, she was never yours". Not at all.
Something broke inside of me.
I muttered, "Last night, I could still feel her."
Irina blinked.
"Her suffering."
That made her smug little smile stop.
I glanced down at my hands. They trembled.
"If she's in pain... I'll track her down."
"Why?" She spoke softly. "You owe her nothing."
I didn't respond.
Since I did.
Since she was the mother of my dog. Because I threw it away like trash after seeing the joy in her eyes when she whispered the word "pregnant."
Because I never once inquired about her desires.
I assumed she would wait.
She did, however, run.
And I sensed the end tonight.
In the dark, a thread was cut.
Irina bent over. She whispered, "You still smell like her." "No matter how hard you try to forget."
I pushed past her and went out the door.
In my ears, the storm howled wind-like claws. The stone is already covered in snow.
The gates stood in front.
The guards waited.
"Ready a search team," I snarled.
They gave a nod.
From the balcony, Irina's voice drifted after me. "Chasing a ghost is going to get you killed."
I didn't give a damn.
I would demolish every rogue den from here to the edge of the continent to bring Selene's spirit back if she had passed away.
However, what if she wasn't?
What if she was still living?
What if she was discovered by someone else first?
Something dark, dangerous, and jealous was sparked inside me by that thought.
Not anger alone.
Ownership.
My wolf gave a low growl. Something that sounded from my bone marrow.
We own her.
She departed from us.
I had her first.
While I rot in this icy palace of lies, someone else might be holding her close, touching her skin, and hearing her scream in the night.
No.
What is mine is never taken.
Not without a conflict.
- Writer
