The Severed Bond

Thalia POV

'Are you my wolf?' I ask the voice inside my head. My heart hammers against my ribs, a chaotic rhythm of disbelief and desperate hope.

'Yes. My name is Kaelith, but you can call me...' she pauses, stretching the silence for dramatic effect. 'Kael.'

A breath I didn't know I was holding escapes my lips. I actually have a wolf. Werewolves are supposed to feel the presence of their inner counterpart by the time they turn ten. The shift is supposed to happen at sixteen. But my sixteenth birthday came and went in a haze of disappointment and mockery. I had resigned myself to being broken, a defect of the pack.

'Hello, Kael,' I project my thoughts back to her, testing the foreign connection. 'Did you take over my body just now? Did you hit Cleo?'

A bright, melodic giggle echoes in the back of my mind. 'Yes. She was being mean to you, and I got angry. I won't lie, it felt good to smash that chair into her.'

'Why didn't you come on my sixteenth birthday?' I ask. The question carries years of accumulated hurt.

Kaelith’s bright energy dims into a profound sadness. I feel it instantly, a heavy ache blooming in the center of my chest. It is a strange, overwhelming sensation to share a body with another consciousness, to feel everything she feels.

'I just couldn't. I tried so hard, Thalia,' Kaelith murmurs, her tone laced with regret. Then, a spark of indignation flares in her. 'Why do you let them mistreat you? We have Alpha blood running through our veins. You shouldn't be scrubbing floors.'

'How can I stop them when my own father and brother enable the abuse?' I reply, the bitter truth tasting like ash in my mouth.

'That sucks,' Kaelith admits. 'But I am here now. We will get through this together. We will bide our time, grow our strength, and then we are going to leave this pack.'

Her confidence is infectious. It radiates through our bond, warming the cold, hollow places inside my soul.

'I like the sound of that,' I tell her.

A genuine, irrepressible smile pulls at the corners of my mouth. Knowing I have someone who will never abandon me changes everything. I finally have a best friend, a companion tethered to my very soul.

I step out into the long, dimly lit hallway of the packhouse, so consumed by the mental chatter with Kaelith that I don't pay attention to my surroundings. I turn the corner and walk straight into a solid wall of muscle.

I stumble backward, bracing for the hard impact of the stone floor, but firm hands shoot out and grip my arms.

The moment his fingers close around my skin, a violent jolt of electricity shoots through my veins. Tingles erupt along my arms, dancing over my flesh like tiny fireworks. I gasp, my senses suddenly hijacked by an intoxicating scent. It smells like sharp, fresh citrus mixed with the crisp scent of rain. It fills my lungs, clouding my mind.

Inside my head, Kaelith purrs a single, world-altering word.

'Mate.'

My breath hitches. Butterflies swarm my stomach, and a deep, radiating warmth floods my entire body. I look up, my mismatched eyes wide with awe, and come face to face with Torin Jax.

Torin. Ronan's second in command. The future Beta of the pack.

Oh, Goddess, thank you. Torin is my mate. I have always liked him. He is strong, respected, and lethal. Once we complete the mating bond, my life will change. No one will dare lay a hand on the Beta's mate. They will have to treat me with the respect I deserve.

I beam up at him. It is the first real, unrestrained smile I have worn in ten agonizing years.

But the smile dies the second I register his expression.

Torin is glaring down at me. His jaw is locked, a muscle ticking violently in his cheek. His dark eyes are stripped of any warmth, replaced by a cold, calculating disgust. The air is sucked straight out of my lungs.

He hates me.

The euphoric high of finding my mate crashes into a terrifying dread.

"Y-you're my mate," I whisper, the words trembling past my lips. My voice sounds brittle, unrecognizable even to myself. A thick lump forms in my throat, choking my airways.

"Shut up!" Torin snarls, his voice a lethal command. "I am not your mate."

My eyes widen in pure shock. A pathetic whimper escapes my mouth. The harshness in his tone slices right through my fragile hope.

Torin shifts his grip, grabbing my elbow hard enough to bruise. The electric sparks erupt over my skin again, a cruel mockery of the bond. My heart races in panic as he pulls me forward. He discreetly drags me down the corridor, pushing through the side doors and marching me away from the packhouse. He hauls me into the dense treeline of the forest, far away from prying eyes and listening ears.

"No," I whimper, dragging my feet against the dirt.

I know exactly what he is about to do. A cold, suffocating fear settles in the pit of my stomach. The Moon Goddess pairs souls together, but the wolves still have free will. Mates can reject each other. They can shatter the sacred bond.

Torin dragged me into the woods to throw me away. A burning, stinging ache builds in my chest, and hot tears prick the corners of my eyes. He shoves me back, forcing me to put distance between us.

"You brought me here to reject me," I say, my voice dropping to a hollow whisper.

"Of course I did. What choice do I have?!" Torin growls. He paces in front of me, running a frustrated hand through his dark brown hair. "You are the reason Luna, your own mother, is dead. She died because of your selfishness."

The accusation hits me with the force of a freight train. Those words, spoken from the lips of my destined soulmate, cut deeper than any physical weapon ever could. They carve out my insides.

"I didn't kill her," I choke out. It is the only defense I can manage past my trembling lips.

"You're the reason she is dead, right?" Torin demands, stepping closer, his shadow swallowing me.

I can't hold his furious gaze. I drop my chin, staring down at the scuffed toes of my shoes. Shame coats my throat like thick mud. He is right. I am the reason she is gone. She sacrificed herself to protect me from the darkness, and I have to carry that blood on my hands for the rest of my life.

"I can't be with you," Torin rants, his voice rising in volume as he tries to justify his cruelty. "I am the future Beta of this pack. If I accepted you—which I couldn't do, not even in the next life—I would lose my status. No Alpha would allow a murderer to stand beside his Beta. And besides, you are not my type."

Inside my mind, Kaelith cries out. Her heart shatters in tandem with mine, the invisible tether between us fraying under the weight of his disgust. I bite down on my lower lip, tasting copper. I don't want to cry. I refuse to let him see me break.

But my body betrays me. A single sob tears free from my throat.

Everyone who was ever supposed to love me hates me. My father, my brother, and now my mate. They all look at me like I am a disease. Who will ever love me now?

Torin stops pacing. He squares his shoulders, ready to deliver the final blow. "I can't take you as my mate—"

"I reject you."

I cut him off. My voice rings out through the quiet forest. I lift my head and look him dead in the eye.

Torin freezes. His mouth drops open, his eyes widening in sheer perplexity.

I refuse to let him strip away the last remaining shred of my dignity. I will not be discarded like trash. I press my palm flat against my own chest, right over my breaking heart, and force the words out with steady, unyielding resolve.

"I, Thalia Corvin, reject you, Beta Torin Jax Vargo, as my mate."

I am proud of myself for not breaking down. The words hang in the cool night air, final and irreversible.

Torin is caught entirely off guard. The abrupt, preemptive rejection slams into him. He gasps, his hands flying to his chest as the agonizing burn of the severing bond ignites across his body. He stumbles backward, panting heavily, fighting for oxygen that refuses to enter his lungs.

"I have dinner to serve," I command coldly, tearing my gaze away from his struggling form. I stare at the bark of a nearby pine tree, masking my own rising agony. "Accept my rejection now."

Torin tries to speak, but the pain robs him of his breath. His lips quiver. When he finally looks up at me, his dark eyes are stripped of their hatred, replaced by a raw, naked softness.

"I, Beta Torin Jax Vargo, accept your rejection, Thalia Corvin."

His words are strangled, forced through a tight throat as though the syllables are made of acid. The sheer agony twisting his handsome features makes a treacherous part of my soul want to beg him to stop, to give us a chance.

I don't. I need to be strong. I need to survive this.

The moment he finishes the sentence, a relentless inferno explodes inside my chest. It feels like my ribs are being pried apart by invisible, burning hooks. The pain ripples outward, setting my skin on fire. I grit my teeth, trying to stay brave, but the tears spill over my lashes, tracking hot paths down my cheeks.

It hurts like hell. It feels like a vital organ is being ripped from my body.

Torin stays standing a few feet away, enduring the exact same torture. His hand twitches, lifting halfway toward me, driven by the instinct to comfort his mate, but he forces it back down. He restrains himself.

It takes five excruciating minutes for the blazing fire to reduce to a dull, constant ache deep within my sternum. I drag a jagged breath into my lungs, turn my back on the boy who was supposed to be my savior, and begin the walk back to the packhouse.

The second I am out of his sight, the dam breaks. Heavy, gut-wrenching sobs rock my frame.

'Kael, are you alright?' I ask, projecting my voice into the mental space we share.

She whimpers. A high, reedy whine of pure devastation echoes in my mind. She didn't expect the rejection to happen so fast. The immense, crushing pain of the broken bond bleeds through our connection, suffocating us both.

'You were finally supposed to be happy, Thalia. But I was wrong,' Kaelith wails, her voice sounding distant and fragmented.

'What do you mean?' I ask, panic spiking through the grief.

'He wasn't supposed to reject us. I saw a glimpse of our future,' she murmurs.

Her presence flickers. The warm, comforting weight of her consciousness begins to recede, slipping through my mental grasp like water.

'Kaelith? Kaelith, come back! Please!' I shout in my mind.

Silence. The mental void returns, vast and pitch black. I am alone again. The life I lived before her feels unbearable now that I know what it is like to have a companion.

"Kaelith!" I scream out loud.

No answer. The trauma of the severed bond has forced her back into dormancy.

My knees buckle. I crash into the dirt of the forest path, my hands clawing at the earth. I beg my wolf to return, sobbing until my throat is raw and my lungs burn. The profound abandonment crushes the last bit of fight left in my body.

Footsteps crunch on the path behind me.

"What the fuck happened to you?" a deadly, familiar growl cuts through the night air.

I flinch. I scramble to get my feet under me, taking wobbly, uncoordinated steps backward. I wipe my dirty hands across my wet face, my chest heaving with lingering sobs.

A tall figure steps out of the shadows. Ronan.

His fists are balled at his sides, his shoulders tense with violent intent. But as he steps into a patch of moonlight and gets a clear look at my face—my swollen eyes, my trembling frame, the absolute devastation radiating from my posture—his lethal anger falters.

The harsh lines of his face soften. The fury in his eyes recedes, shifting into something that looks dangerously close to concern.

"Thalia, what the fuck happened to you?"