The pain of the bond being tainted, seeing her give her loyalty to another, was beyond any self-control.
Right then I realized, with devastating clarity, that I had made the greatest mistake of my life. I had pushed her into the arms of another thinking I was protecting her, but I had only succeeded in losing her.
Maren mattered to me more than my lineage, more than my father, and more than my own life. She mattered to me in a way that transcended the bond, in a way that made me want to burn the world down just so she would look at me with love again and not with that frozen contempt.
"This s**t cannot be happening!" I roared, this time with my voice breaking.
Fury, pain, and betrayal mixed into an uncontrollable storm. I turned toward the large mirror covering the wall. I saw my own r
