~~~Anya~~~~
When I walked away from Ridgewood, it wasn't like the pain had ended for real… if anything, it actually grew worse. Each step with Talia beside me felt as if a piece of me was being ripped away and left like nothing behind on the ground.
The bond was finally gone. Truly gone, not hidden or buried under fury or humiliation, but truly gone. The realization settled deep inside my chest like a block of ice. I'd pictured what exactly it'll look like to stand beside my mate for years. To really belong somewhere. To happily have a place in the world that was mine. But now, I got the opposite. I now know what it really felt like to lose something precious to you even before you ever had it.
The breeze from the evening brushed against my skin as Talia tightened her grip around my wai
