Dissolving the Mate Bond

*****Dari's POV*****

Dissolving the mate bond? I scoff in sheer disbelief, gripping the freshly signed divorce papers in my hands. The dark ink on the page mocks me, a stark contrast against the pristine white parchment. Up until this very second, I had truly thought she was just heavily joking about getting a divorce. I assumed she was trying to manipulate me, pulling a desperate stunt to drag my attention away from Milla. But she actually signed the papers without a single moment of hesitation. Not a tremor in her hand, not a flicker of doubt in her icy grey eyes. I continuously tell myself I could not care less, though. Her brainless, emotional decisions do not affect my life. I feel nothing for her anyway, and a bond based on mere fate means nothing to a man who demands control over his own destiny.

*You have to stop this, Dari,* Kael, my inner wolf, pleads in my mind, testing my rapidly thinning patience. He paces back and forth in the dark cages of my consciousness, his massive paws kicking up mental dust. *She is doing all these because she is mad at you. If only you could beg her and tell her to forget about everything and start all over—*

*Alright, that is enough,* I angrily cut him off in my head. *Are you being serious right now? Apologize to Vivian?* I snort internally, staring straight ahead at the ancient stone altar of the Moon Goddess rising before us. The massive marble statue casts a long, imposing shadow over the temple floor. I would much rather be a lowly slave, stripped of my rank and forced to scrub the bloodstained floors of the packhouse, than grovel to an Omega who dares to issue ultimatums.

The solemn pack elders assemble around the sacred altar, their long, gray robes sweeping across the dust-covered floorboards. The lead elder stops right in front of us, his weathered face lined with centuries of pack history and dark secrets.

"Alpha Darius. Luna Vivian," the elder's voice echoes through the cavernous space, heavy with solemnity and ancient magic. "Is this extreme severance truly what you desire?"

The gathered pack watches in deep anticipation. I can feel the burning weight of a hundred stares pressing into my spine. My mother stands in the front row, her arms crossed tight over her chest, glaring daggers at Vivian's back. Beside her, my sister leans over to whisper something, and Milla flashes a victorious, innocent smile. Milla's eyes sparkle with the undeniable triumph of a woman who just successfully dethroned the reigning Luna.

I turn my head, expecting Vivian to finally break under the immense pressure of the pack's judgment. I wait for her lower lip to tremble, for her to realize the colossal magnitude of her mistake. Instead, she stands rigid. Vivian, whom everyone knows as just a lowly, weak Omega with no one to stand by her side, maintains a terrifyingly stoic, unreadable expression. Her eyes stare blankly ahead, fixed on the stone altar.

"Yes!" we answer simultaneously, our voices ringing out through the silent temple like a death knell.

My jaw clenches tight. *See?* I taunt Kael, pushing my smug arrogance through our mental link. *She does not even want to stay. Her stubbornness is her own funeral.*

*Just apologize, and she will stay!* Kael howls, throwing his massive body against the mental barriers I erected.

I ignore him, shutting the link down. The elders raise their carved wooden staffs, beginning the archaic chants required to petition the Goddess. They gesture with wrinkled hands for us to kneel. I drop down onto the freezing cold stone, the bitter chill seeping straight through the dark fabric of my tailored trousers. Beside me, Vivian mirrors the exact motion. She does not flinch at the biting cold.

A mocking thought briefly crosses my mind. She has no family, no standing, no money. Maybe I should offer her a pathetic job as Milla's personal maid just to elevate her ruined life once she officially loses her Luna status. It would keep a roof over her head, and it would be a fitting punishment for her arrogance. But I quickly push the arrogant thought aside as we bow our heads to pray.

The rhythmic chanting of the elders slowly fades into the background. A heavy, suffocating silence settles over the damp temple. We are instructed to wait in a secluded corner behind the altar while the elders commune with the spiritual realm to secure the Goddess's divine answer.

I lean back against the rough, damp stone wall, crossing my arms over my broad chest. Vivian stands a few feet away, staring blankly at a flickering silver candle resting on a narrow pedestal. She blatantly ignores my existence. It is incredibly out of character for the once meek, desperately obedient woman who used to always look at me with intense, suffocating love. She used to hang onto my every word, her eyes tracking my every movement around a room as if I hung the moon and the stars.

Now, she treats me like empty, worthless air.

Even though I constantly insist I do not care about her new attitude, my massive Alpha ego is definitely, deeply bruised. The silence stretches between us, thick and barbed. How could this shameless, vile woman, whose ugly jealousy had led her to do something as stupid as attempting murder on Milla, suddenly act like I am invisible? She was the one who let her emotions drive her to madness. She was the one who ruined our pack's peace. Yet here she stands, radiating a cold indifference that makes my blood boil in my veins.

I clench my fists inside my pockets, my knuckles turning stark white. What an ungrateful wretch. I force myself to look away from her delicate profile, staring up at the vaulted, arched ceiling instead.

The minutes drag on endlessly. The tense silence between us transforms into a physical entity, heavy and suffocating against my throat. Kael whimpers pitifully in the back of my mind, his vibrant energy depleting with every passing second. He senses the imminent end of the bond. I push his grief away. As the Alpha, I have my unyielding pride to uphold. I will not let an Omega's dramatic temper tantrum break my iron composure.

Heavy footsteps echo against the stone floor. The high elders emerge from the thick shadows, their expressions grim and final.

"The Moon Goddess has accepted your prayers for severance," the lead elder loudly announces, his voice booming across the silent hall.

We solemnly return to the center of the altar for the final, verbal rejection. The gathered pack leans in, holding their collective breath. As I look deeply into Vivian's icy eyes, the sudden, crushing weight of the impending separation heavily settles on my broad shoulders. It feels like a physical boulder pressing down against my spine, threatening to snap me in half. My throat goes bone dry. I inexplicably find myself at a staggering loss for words. The ancient script of rejection I memorized vanishes from my mind.

*It is not too late to stop this, Dari. Do not do this,* Kael pleads desperately. His voice cracks into a broken, wretched sound that painfully rattles my skull.

I swallow hard, desperately fighting the thick lump in my throat. I just need to say the damn words. I just need to get this ritual over with so I can move on with my life. But before I can force even a single syllable out of my mouth, Vivian aggressively beats me to the punch.

"I, Vivian Ashford, hereby reject you, Darius Montgomery, Alpha of the Moongrove pack, as my mate!" she declares loudly, her voice echoing off the rafters without even blinking.

My teeth painfully grit in sudden, raw anger at her utter lack of remorse. She stole my right to initiate. She tossed me aside without a shred of hesitation. The audacity of her coldness ignites a blinding fury inside my chest.

"I, Darius Montgomery, Alpha of the Moongrove pack, accept your rejection!" I roar back, my voice dripping with pure venom.

Instantly, a searing, blinding agony shoots through my body like a thousand piercing, poisoned knives. The air vanishes from my lungs in a sudden rush. I choke on the suffocating, paralyzing pain as a gut-wrenching, bloody scream simultaneously tears from Vivian's lips. It is a sound of pure, unadulterated heartbreak echoing off the ancient stone walls, slicing right through the stagnant air.

My knees hit the freezing floor with a sickening crack. I fall to the ground, grasping at my chest, suffocating under the crushing weight of the severed bond. The sheer, unadulterated anguish of a severed Alpha-Luna bond is physically crushing—infinitely worse than anyone had ever warned. It feels as though an invisible, jagged blade is carving my heart out of my ribcage. Kael lets out an ear-piercing howl inside my head, thrashing against the mental cage as the invisible cord tying our souls together snaps with brutal force. The pain is a living, breathing monster, ripping my soul into shredded ribbons and setting my nerve endings on fire. I gag, my forehead pressing against the cold stone, unable to draw a single breath of oxygen.

Time stretches into an eternity of burning torture. When the agonizing, world-ending pain finally subsides, leaving us gasping for air on the temple floor, the lead elder steps forward. He officially declares us un-mated.

I kneel on the stone, panting heavily, cold sweat dripping from my forehead onto the floorboards. Vivian pants, her chest heaving rapidly. Then, she slowly smirks, rising gracefully to her feet. She smooths down the wrinkles in her clothes, her breathing steadying as she regains her composure.

She looks down at me, still kneeling in the dirt. She looks me dead in the eye, her gaze carrying a chilling finality.

"I hope we never meet again in the future," she says directly to my face, smoothly turning around and leaving the sacred premises without a single look back. Her boots click against the stone floor, the sound echoing through the dead silence of the temple.