The rain started on my second day alone.
Cold. Relentless. The kind that soaked through clothes and skin and settled into bones.
I barely noticed.
The pain was worse.
Not the physical kind though my body ached from sleeping on the ground, from the miles I'd walked, from the wound in my side that Dr. Chen had warned me not to strain.
No. This was something else entirely.
The bond.
It hadn't broken. Not completely. I'd felt bonds snap before I heard the stories, seen the aftermath. When a mate bond is severed fully, wolves said it was like having your soul ripped in half.
This was different.
This was worse.
Because it was still there. Still connected. Just... stretched. Thin and fraying and screaming at me to go back, go back, go back.
Every step away from Crescent Moon territory
