The Vow He Broke

Chapter 4 Severing the Bond

(Zane's POV)

I reached the passage behind the altar and stopped. The Luna had ordered me out, yet every step felt like desertion.

When I looked back, the beasts had formed a rough circle around Elara. They snapped at the air and paced beside her, unable to cross the pale light leaking from her skin.

Elara walked past the ruined defensive wards. Blood ran from her throat to her collar, then down the front of her white tunic.

At the center of the temple lay a ring of carvings dormant for a thousand years. Pack law forbade even speaking their name during a bond ceremony. No living Luna had used them.

The Runes of Severance. A Luna could break every blood oath in the circle, including the one that kept her alive.

Elara stepped inside the ring. She guided the blood from her throat into the first groove with two fingers, then turned until it had touched every mark.

The last rune filled. Gold light burst across the floor and pushed the curse-beasts back.

Her vow sounded inside my skull.

*My blood leaves the false god. My bond leaves the wolf who betrayed it.*

Gold reached her fingertips first. They broke into bright flecks that drifted upward. Her hands followed, then her arms and shoulders. No body fell inside the ring.

Elara kept her eyes open until her face disappeared.

The light rose above the temple and spread into a dome. Curse-beasts struck it from within. Broken pillars and falling stones froze at its edge.

The seal closed around the monsters, the ruins, and the last gold fleck of my Luna. Its dome covered the entire temple and held every beast inside.

I stood outside it with her blood on the wolf-head crest in my hand.

(Kaelen's POV)

The hidden safehouse smelled of damp stone and the dried herbs Marcus had stored there. Miles of mountain stood between us and the temple.

Selene shook against my chest. I ran a hand over her hair until my breathing slowed.

"We're safe," I said. "The prophecy is secure."

The mate bond in my chest had gone quiet. I treated the silence as proof that Elara was busy holding the line. She had forgiven every earlier betrayal.

Heat struck the side of my neck.

I dropped Selene and hit the floor. My fingernails tore at the skin beneath my bonding mark, yet the burning kept spreading inward.

"Alpha!" Marcus grabbed my shoulder. "What's happening?"

Selene pointed. "Kaelen, your mark!"

I crawled to the polished silver shield on the wall. In its reflection, the wolf emblem binding me to Elara glowed red. Smoke curled from its silver lines.

The mark pulsed twice and went dark. The smell of burned skin filled the safehouse, and Selene moved away from me.

Pain vanished with it. I pressed my fingertips to my neck. The raised silver pattern had become a puckered black scar. The skin around it felt dead.

I searched for Elara through the bond and found nothing. No anger. No fear. No heartbeat answering mine.

"It's a trick," I told Marcus. My voice scraped on every word. "She wants me to crawl back. She thinks this will frighten me."

Marcus looked at the scar and released my shoulder.

I called Elara's name through the bond again. The silence stayed.