CHAPTER 6 The Pain That Breaks
860 Words
(Selena's POV)
My body burned like fire.
Every breath was like glass cutting through my chest.
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think.
All I could feel… was him.
His rejection.
His voice echoing in my head—
“I, Alpha Zade of the High Claw Pack, reject you.”
I thought the pain would fade after that. But I was wrong.
It only grew.
I could hear people talking around me, but everything was a blur. The air smelled strange…like pine, smoke, and rain. Someone was holding me down gently.
“Selena? Hey,Selena, stay with me,” a deep voice said.
That voice again. The one from the forest.
The one who saved me.
Nikolai.
I forced my eyes open, but the light stabbed through them. I groaned and turned away.
My skin was cold, but sweat soaked my shirt.
“She’s burning up,” another voice said. Softer. Worried.
It was a woman’s voice too, but younger.
“Yeah,” Nikolai answered. “Her temperature keeps rising. I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s… unnatural.”
“It’s the mate bond,” the woman said quietly. “When it breaks before it’s complete, it tears through the body. It’s like losing half your soul.”
Half my soul.
Yes. That’s what it felt like.
I whimpered, curling up weakly. My bones ached. My heart felt too heavy for my chest.
Nikolai brushed my hair back from my face. His touch was firm but gentle.
“You’re safe, alright? You’re safe here. You’re not alone anymore.”
His words pierced through the haze.
Not alone.
But I was.
He didn’t know it, but he was just another Alpha. Another man who would never see me the same way again once he learned the truth. Once he knew what I was.
An omega.
I wanted to tell him to go.
To stop pretending.
But all that came out was a broken whisper.
“It hurts… so much…”
“I know,” he said, voice low and rough. “I know it does.”
The woman—his mate, maybe—stepped closer. She had short brown hair and kind eyes.
“Alpha, if she keeps fighting it, it could kill her,” he said.
“She needs to accept it.”
“I can’t make her do that,” Nikolai said, his jaw tight. “That’s her choice.”
“She doesn’t have a choice right now,” I hear her say quietly. “Her wolf is rejecting her body. You’re the only one with enough strength to stop it.”
I wanted to scream.
To tell them to stop talking like I wasn’t even there.
But I was fading in and out of consciousness. Mira’s voice—the voice of my wolf—was slipping away too.
“Selena… fight… please…”
I tried to reach for her in my mind, but my link to her was flickering, like a candle in the wind.
Then Nikolai leaned close, his voice low but commanding.
“Selena, listen to me.”
I blinked weakly at him. His eyes were a stormy blue, full of worry.
“You’re killing yourself trying to hold onto the bond,” he said. “Let it go. Please.”
Tears burned my eyes. “I can’t. It’s all I have left of them… my parents… my pack…”
His hand clenched into a fist. “I know what it’s like to lose everything,” he whispered. “But sometimes, the only way to live… is to let go.”
“I… I can’t…”
He closed his eyes, and when he spoke again, his tone carried the weight of an Alpha’s command.
“Selena. You will accept the rejection.”
The power in his voice hit me like a bolt. My body stiffened, and I screamed as fire rushed through my veins.
Mira’s voice screamed too.
“No—Selena, no!”
And then… silence.
The bond snapped.
Something deep inside me cracked open and vanished.
I fell still. My chest rose and fell in shallow breaths. The world felt… empty.
Like someone had pulled all the colors out and left only gray.
Nikolai caught me before I hit the ground.
“Hey, hey—look at me,” he said, panic creeping into his tone. “Selena—open your eyes!”
I forced them open, but tears spilled down my face. “She’s gone,” I whispered. “Mira’s gone.”
The woman who I now knew was named Lyra—placed a hand on Nikolai’s shoulder. “You did what you had to, Alpha. It was the only way.”
Nikolai shook his head slowly, looking down at me.
“No… no one should ever have to go through that.”
And then the sobs came.
Deep, broken cries I couldn’t hold in anymore. My whole body shook.
Nikolai didn’t say anything.
He just sat there on the floor beside me, letting me cry into his chest while Lyra quietly left
the room.
For a moment, I felt a strange calm.
Not because the pain was gone—
But because someone finally stayed.
- Writer
