Betrayed, Not Broken

No Escape

~ Regis's POV ~

The wind howled through the cliffs, carrying the scent of blood and damp earth. Below, the river roared in the distance, a merciless abyss that had swallowed her whole. The place where she fell was eerily silent, save for the whisper of the storm gathering above.

I stood at the edge, my deep blue eyes searching the darkness. Hoping. Denying.

She was gone.

This can't be true… this can't happen.

Seraphina could not die.

My hands clenched into fists, nails digging into my palms until they nearly broke the skin. The ghost of her defiance still burned in my mind—those fiery eyes, the way her lips curled in mockery before she whispered the words that shattered me:

“I reject you.”

A snarl ripped from my throat, raw and guttural. My wolf, Kael, howled inside me, a violent storm thrashing against my control.

‘She is ours! Go after her! Find her! It's your fault!’

I gritted my teeth, forcing dominance over the raging beast within. My power had never felt so unstable, slipping through my fingers like sand. Never had I felt so... unmade.

She dared to reject me.

The words echoed through my skull, a vicious taunt. No one rejected me. No one walked away from me. Seraphina had been mine since the day she was born, a fate neither of us could change. Yet she had looked me in the eye, fearless, unyielding, and chosen death over belonging to me.

Nah, I can't allow her to do such a thing.

Even if she is going to break… she needs to break in my arms.

Lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating the world in flashes of silver. The storm rumbled like a war drum, as if the heavens themselves mocked me.

She had fallen—but she wasn’t dead.

She couldn’t be.

A tremor ran through me, something I refused to name. If she had died, I would have felt it. Our bond would have snapped, leaving behind nothing but emptiness. But she was still there, a flicker at the edge of my awareness. Faint. But real. Alive.

‘It’s because of you that we are going to lose our mate. Our mate has rejected us! I will not forgive you if she leaves us.’ Kael warned me.

My lips curled into a slow, dangerous smile.

Seraphina could not die… I won't allow such a thing to happen at any cost.

If she survived, then she would run. And if she was running… I would catch her and show her that there was no escape.

“Regis.”

Scarlett’s voice slithered into my thoughts, sharp as a dagger. I turned, my gaze locking onto hers. There it was—a flicker of satisfaction in her eyes. A spark in the dry kindling of my rage, and that smile on her face. She must be feeling relieved.

My jaw tightened. “You pushed her. I didn't ask you to do such a thing, so who told you to use your brains?”

A flash of panic crossed her face before she masked it with feigned innocence. “I had no other choice. She was escaping. So, I had to make such a decision.”

I advanced on her, my presence suffocating. She shrank back, but I caught her chin in a bruising grip, forcing her to meet my gaze. “Don't give me useless excuses, Scarlett. Do you think I am stupid? You stole my kill.” My voice was low, lethal. “You think I wanted her dead?”

Scarlett swallowed hard, her pulse hammering beneath my fingers. “She rejected you. Seraphina was weak, and she still dared to disrespect you. How could you forget that just because she was the alpha Logan's daughter you were always at her mercy? She would have ruined…”

A growl ripped from my throat, silencing her. I shoved her away, my mind spiraling into the abyss of rage and loss.

Seraphina was weak. That was what I had told myself.

That was what I had made her believe. I had spent years shaping her, keeping her dependent on me, making her submissive to me… that was how I made her mine. She was supposed to be my Luna, my most prized possession.

But in the end, she shattered me.

I exhaled slowly, reigning in the beast inside me. My wolf was losing himself. I could feel how angry he was right now.

No.

This wasn’t over.

Not yet.

My voice was cold steel. “Find her. Bring me her body—dead or alive. If you fail to find her… I won't mind losing ten or fifteen pack members.”

The pack members flinched at the weight of my command. Fear was quite evident on their faces. After lowering their heads in front of me, they scattered into the night. I tilted my head, my smirk deepening.

She thought she could escape me?

Seraphina was mine.

That was something that even she could not change. We are fated to be together, and even Seraphina could not fight against fate.

And no matter where she ran, I would come for her.

After commanding the remaining pack members, I turned to head back to the packhouse where the others were waiting for me. Scarlett silently followed.

As I entered the packhouse, the great hall buzzed with murmurs. The elders sat at the long table, their faces etched with relief. Their whispered words confirmed what they all believed—Seraphina Valerius was no more.

Their happiness was something that was making my blood boil in a rage.

I strode in, the scent of rain and blood clinging to me, my cold blue eyes scanning the room like a predator sizing up its prey. At the head of the table stood Beta Nox, my father, his face a mask of unreadable calm.

Beside him sat Anara, my stepmother, her lips curved into a calculating smile, as always. The woman who had shaped me into this—who had molded me with her cold, unforgiving hands. And, of course, the mother of Scarlett, whose ambition matched her own.

A pack member stepped forward, his posture smug, his arrogance bleeding into every word. “The weak b***h is finally dead. I could never see someone like her as our future Luna. She had nothing to offer except a pretty body,” he sneered, his voice dripping with disdain. “Good riddance."

A cold, heavy silence fell over the room, suffocating, thick with the weight of his words. I felt the air grow still around me as every pair of eyes turned towards me. Every breath seemed to hold its own tremor of fear.

My vision blurred with crimson. The world around me seemed to slow, the sound of my pulse roaring in my ears, drowning out all else. Rage surged through me like wildfire, scorching away all logic.

‘Kill this bastard!’ Kael roared inside my head, his fury mingling with my own.

I didn’t think much. I didn’t hesitate. My body moved on instinct, driven by an animalistic need to punish, to destroy the bastard.

My hand shot out, seizing his throat, lifting him off the ground with a brutal force that stole the air from his lungs. His eyes bulged, terror flooding them, but there was no escape. His fingers clawed uselessly at my grip, the last defiance of a man who knew he was about to die.

I could feel his pulse beneath my fingertips, rapid and desperate, a fragile rhythm of life that fluttered wildly against my hand. It was a pathetic, fleeting thing, and I had all the control.

And then I squeezed.

A sickening crack shattered the stillness of the hall, the sound of his neck snapping like brittle wood. His body went limp, life drained from him in an instant.

I released him, letting his lifeless form fall to the cold stone with a hollow thud, blood trickling from my fingers, staining the floor beneath us.

The room stood in stunned silence, the air thick with the stench of death. My heart pounded in my chest, the adrenaline still coursing through my veins. I stood over him, staring down at his broken body, my hands trembling—not from fear, but from the raw, uncontrollable power I had just unleashed.

I stepped forward, my voice like ice. “She was mine.” My gaze swept over them, daring them to speak. “Anyone who speaks of Seraphina with disrespect will share his fate.”

Anara watched me with something akin to pride. Beta Nox gave a slow nod.

They lowered their heads and bent their knees, a show of submission, an unspoken acknowledgment of my new title. The room was heavy with their silent acceptance as they recognized me as their Alpha.

And just like that, the power was mine… the position was mine.

But none of them understood.

Seraphina wasn’t gone. She couldn't be.

I still felt her presence, a faint pulse beneath the weight of my own rage. Somewhere in the darkness, she was waiting, biding her time.

And I would find her.

No matter what it took, no matter how long it took.

The night stretched on, restless and heavy with the scent of the storm. I stood on the balcony, my fingers digging into the cold stone railing, my eyes scanning the darkness that stretched beyond my territory.

My wolf paced within me, his agitation mirroring the storm that brewed outside. He could feel it, too… this gnawing emptiness, the constant hunger for what was now out of reach.

“You should rest, my son.”

Anara’s voice slithered into my thoughts like a serpent. I didn’t turn to face her. Her words never reached me, not now. Not when my mind was consumed by her—by Seraphina.

“I don’t need rest,” I said, the words sharp as a blade. “I need her back.”

A sigh escaped her, soft, practiced—a sound I had come to know all too well. “Seraphina chose death over you. That is her loss, not yours.”

My teeth bared, the urge to strike at something, anything, clawing at me. “She is mine. I will make her see it.”

I could feel her step closer, the subtle brush of her fingers against my arm—a touch that felt more like a warning than comfort. “And if she refuses?” Her voice was almost too sweet, a challenge veiled in feigned concern.

A slow smirk twisted on my lips, but it didn’t reach my eyes. “Then I will break her until she has no choice but to obey.”

The storm raged on, the wind howling through the night, but my senses sharpened to one sound—faint yet unyielding.

The steady thrum of Seraphina’s heartbeat, a pulse that called to me through the distance. She was alive. She was waiting.

Seraphina Valerius had defied me.

But the hunt had only just begun.