After I Left the Alpha at the Altar and Cut Our Bond

Ten days before our wedding, my fiance vanished. I shifted into my lean silver wolf and ran through knee-deep snow for seven days and seven nights. My paws pounded the hard ice until my claws wore raw. Three times I coughed up blood before I finally caught the faintest thread of cedar and traced it to a hunting lodge deep in Blackpine Forest. I thought he had been gravely wounded. I had even decided that if an enemy had captured him, I would trade every inch of the Silver Wolf territory I had inherited for his safe return. But when I silently eased open the lodge's outer door, the soft laughter slipping through the c***k made me freeze. "Kane, are you really planning to abandon her at the bonding ceremony?" The flippant voice belonged to a Blackthorn wolf. "Why wouldn't I?" Kane said, with a lazy laugh. "Noah pushed his bonding with Eve back eighteen times and made a joke of her. So I'll make her Luna-to-be, then pull the floor out from under her right when she's happiest. Picture Noah's face when I leave her at the altar." "But you pursued her for five years. Was all of that an act?" "The fact that I burned five years on it is exactly why I can't let it go." Something obsessive crept into his voice. "She agreed to marry me, but she spent the first eighteen years of her life in love with Noah. I've had five years, and she still says his name in her sleep. What does that make me? A stand-in? If she can't give me all of herself, she doesn't get all of me. Lia's different. Her heart's never belonged to anybody else." Through the c***k, I watched Kane drain his glass. His collar hung open, revealing the smooth moonstone pendant on his chest—the pledge token I had spent three months polishing for him by hand. Memories came flooding back. Twenty years ago, I had been an abandoned Omega. Noah saved me, and from then on, I followed him like a shadow, mistaking gratitude for love. He postponed our bonding eighteen times and left me kneeling in the snow until I coughed up blood. That day, Kane had stood before me beneath a black umbrella. He wiped the mud and water from my face and said, "Turn around and look at me." So I did. I spent two years making sure what I felt was real, then three more loving him with everything I had. On the day he proposed, I willingly bared my vulnerable nape to his fangs. But he only left half a mate mark. He said he would complete it at the ceremony, so that I would retain the right to choose until the very end. I had thought it proved how deeply he treasured me. Now I knew better. From the shadows, he had spent five years planning his revenge on Noah and me. The wolves inside were still egging him on. "Kane, act like nothing happened. Go home, help her try on the dress, write your vows together. Then humiliate her in front of every pack on the day. It'll feel incredible!" I stood in the snowstorm, waiting for him to refuse. Kane merely said, "Let's do it." The half mark below my collarbone erupted in a stab of agony. I bit down on the back of my hand until the taste of blood filled my mouth, holding back the broken whimper threatening to escape. Snowflakes landed on my lashes and melted into icy water. I turned and walked, one step at a time, back into the darkness. It was well past midnight when I returned to the castle. The bedroom was as silent as a tomb, cold moonlight spilling across the heavy concrete floor. The first thing I did was open the tightly shut wardrobe and take out the wedding gown I had spent eight months preparing. The finest tailors in the Silver Wolf territory had embroidered it one stitch at a time. The day I tried it on, tradition had kept Kane outside. He had gripped both sides of the doorway and asked me again and again, "Eve, you must look beautiful in it. Am I the luckiest Alpha in the world?" His laughter had been full of hope for our future. For a while, I believed I had found my home. Now, he would never have to see it. I gripped a sharp dagger and slashed down without mercy. Riiip. The harsh sound of tearing cloth echoed through the room. I cut the white bridal skirt—the symbol of purity and sacred vows—cleanly in two. Then I opened a drawer and threw every love letter he had written me over the past five years into the fireplace. Flames swallowed all those burning declarations, reducing them to curls of black smoke. At the bottom of an iron chest lay a worn, yellowing wolf fang. Kane had torn it from his own mouth and given it to me. He said it was the hardest bone in the Blackthorn Wolf King's body, and it would protect me for all eternity. I held the warm fang and ran my fingertips over it for a long time. Letting go of someone I had loved for five years wasn't like cutting through a painless cord. It was like stripping flesh from my own bones. But I closed my eyes and released it anyway. It struck the bottom of the iron chest with a dull thud. My phone chimed and lit up. Lia had made a new post. Lia: [The great hero I've loved for thirteen years is about to marry someone else. Tonight, I finally kissed him.] The photo had been taken in the hunting lodge, firelight flickering behind them. Lia stood on tiptoe, her arms around Kane's neck as she kissed him. Kane's hands hung at his sides. He hadn't embraced her, but he hadn't pushed her away either. Around her slender wrist was the red coral cord reserved for women of Blackthorn's ruling family. My phone rang abruptly. It was Noah, my former fiance. "Eve, leave Kane. He only came after you to beat me in front of every pack. He doesn't love you." "Leave him for you?" I let out a bitter laugh. "He doesn't love me, but haven't you always let me down too?" I ended the call and blocked his number for good. Then I took out the special appointment letter the Silvermoon Research Institute had sent me three years ago. I had turned it down so I could stay with Kane. I called my mentor, who lived across the ocean. "Professor, I've changed my mind. I'll report for duty in ten days." After I hung up, I opened the wedding planner on my desk. At the bottom of the first page, I wrote: Ten days to the ceremony. I crossed a thousand miles of blizzard to find the man I'd lost. Turns out he was never lost. I was the one who'd lost my way.