REGINA
The momentthe coven bond breaks, it feels like someone has ripped out a vital organ.
Thevitalestof fucking organs.
Pain explodes through my body, radiating from my core outward. Screams tear out of me. Five years of magical connection to Kyle and the coven severed in an instant.
The emptiness that follows is worse than the pain, a sudden hollowness where something essential used to be.
I'm falling, my knees buckling as my body tries to process the loss. But I don't hit the ground. Strong hands grip me from all sides, anchoring me to reality.
"Hold her," Villeneuve commands from somewhere beyond our circle. His voice sounds distant, as if it's coming through water. "Do not break contact, no matter what happens next."
I struggle to keep speaking, to continue the incantation despite the way my vision swims and my lungs burn. The Latin feelseven more foreign on my tongue now, as if the breaking of the coven bond has stripped away even this basic knowledge.
That's the last fucking thing I need right now.
Forgetting fuckingLatin.
But muscle memory takes over, and I push through, syllable by syllable.
The dragon's blood burns in my veins, its ancient power seeping into every cell and filling the cracks left behind by the broken bond. I can taste it still. It's metallic and fiery, with an undertone of something so ancient and powerful it defies description.
It's the taste of magic in its rawest form, power that predates humanity itself.
Oh yeah. Dragons aredefinitelyfucking real.
Through the haze of pain, I feel something new beginning to form. Tendrils of energy reaching out from the four wolves surrounding me, seeking connection. Their consciousness brushes against mine, foreign yet somehow familiar.
I can feel them. All of them. Not just their physical presence, but their essence.
Killian's energy is a storm of protective fury and dominance, shot through with a fierce devotion that takes my breath away. Rowan's flows like a deep river, calm on the surface but with powerful currents beneath. Sean's is chaotic and bright, like fireworks against a night sky. Fireworks in a tornado. And Micah's is steady and warm, observing everything around him with wonder.
Including me.
Especiallyme.
They're all so different, yet they fit together perfectly, complementing each other's strengths and weaknesses. And now they're reaching for me, trying to pull me into their orbit. Trying to provide the energy I need to survive, refusing to let me drift into the nothingness that wants to swallow me whole in my unbonded state.
I resist instinctively, panic flaring as I feel their consciousness pressing against mine. It's too much, too overwhelming. After everything I've been through, the idea of four others inside my mind is terrifying. Especially knowing the pull I already feel toward them.
Kyle hollowed me out.
But these four…
Theycould be my destruction.
"Let us in, Regina," Killian murmurs against my ear, his voice a rumble I feel more than hear. "We won't hurt you. We could never hurt you."
"Trust us," Micah whispers from below, his eyes locked on mine, earnest and pleading.
"Yeah. We've got you, Storm," Sean adds, his usual playfulness replaced by an uncharacteristic seriousness.
Rowan simply holds me, his touch and calm energy like an anchor.
The room spins around me, the candle flames stretching and blurring into streaks of blue-white light. The air crackles with energy that makes my skin prickle and my hair stand on end.I can feel myself weakening with each passing second. Without the coven bond, my magical reserves are draining rapidly. If the new bond doesn't form soon, I'll be left in a dangerous limbo—cut off from my old power source with no new connection to replace it.
I could die like this.
