Jason's POV
After the night of Lysa's betrayal, I locked myself inside the villa for an entire week.
Day and night lost their meaning. The curtains stayed drawn. The lights stayed off. I drank until my throat burned and my mind blurred, until sleep and waking became the same dull haze.
Empty bottles piled up in the living room, some rolled across the floor in the bedroom, and clinked against each other whenever I moved.
I had always been disciplined—training at dawn, studying at night, body sharp, mind even sharper.
But now, all I remember is pain.
The kind that radiated from somewhere deep in my chest, spreading through my entire body until even breathing hurt.
The mate bond—that connection I'd thought was sacred, now felt like it was trying to tear me apart from th
