But I didn't. I kept my distance, thinking I was protecting her. And now she's out there alone, believing the worst of me.
She's not running from you out of hatred, I tell myself. She's running because she's afraid. Afraid for herself. Afraid for our child.
The thought should comfort me, but it only makes the guilt worse. My Omega shouldn't have to fear me. Ever.
Through the bond, I feel her presence growing marginally stronger. We're getting closer.
Hold on, I think desperately, hoping some echo reaches her. I'm coming. I'll explain everything. Just hold on.
The boundary villages pass in a blur—ramshackle buildings and wary faces watching our procession. I stop only once, at a small inn, where the keeper nervously confirms a woman matching Seraphina's description stopped for food early this morning.
"She looked tired, my lord," the keeper says, wringing his hands. "But not injured. She spoke with an old woman for a bit, then left heading north."
North. Toward the deep forest. Toward the most isolated part of the boundary territories.
"North," I command, changing direction. "Push harder."
The forest thickens around us, silver bark gleaming in the afternoon light. Ivy darts ahead, her wings leaving trails of luminescence that guide our path.
We're close now. So close I can almost feel her through the bond?—
Agony.
Pure, undiluted agony tears through me with such intensity that I'm thrown from my mount, crashing to the rocky ground. Dark energy explodes outward in violent waves, flattening the surrounding vegetation, sending wildlife fleeing in terror.
"My lord!" Emmett's voice seems to come from underwater, distorted and distant beneath the roaring in my ears.
I try to respond, but only a howl of pain escapes—a sound no human throat should be capable of producing. An Alpha's death cry. The sound of a mate bond shattering.
My body convulses, back arching impossibly as liquid fire races through my veins. Every nerve ending ignites simultaneously. This isn't physical pain—this is the very fabric of my soul being torn apart.
Through the haze of agony, I hear Ivy's panicked voice: "What's happening to him?"
"I don't know," Emmett replies tensely. But I see the recognition in his Alpha eyes. He remembers. He was there when Julia died, when this same agony ripped through me.
Another wave of pain crashes through me, bringing momentary blindness. When my vision clears, I see the forest around us erupting with shadowfire—my magic responding to my suffering, tearing trees from their roots. Ancient aspens crack and splinter, massive trunks reduced to kindling.
"We need to contain this," Emmett shouts to the guards. "Form a perimeter! Keep the shadows from spreading!"
Through our fragmenting bond, I feel her presence flickering, then fading, like a candle being snuffed out.
No. Not again. Please, not again.
"Seraphina," I gasp, the name tearing from my throat. "Hold on, Omega. Just hold on."
My Omega. My mate. MINE.
The next wave brings blood—hot copper on my tongue as vessels burst from the strain. Around me, dark energy forms horrific, tortured shapes—twisted humanoid figures with gaping maws, clawed hands reaching toward the sky.
The sky darkens overhead, clouds forming from nothing, swirling in a vortex above us. Lightning cracks across the purplish-black expanse, striking the forest repeatedly.
"He's going to tear the entire forest apart," I hear someone warn. "The backlash could destroy everything for miles."
I scream her name, the sound tearing from my ravaged throat with such force that blood sprays from my lips. The shadow guards nearest to me collapse, overwhelmed by proximity to such raw magical suffering. Emmett remains upright through sheer force of will, though his face has gone grey.
Then, abruptly, silence.
The pain vanishes as suddenly as it began, leaving a terrible emptiness in its wake. I lay sprawled on the shattered ground, gasping for breath, my consciousness clawing its way back from the brink. My body feels hollow, incomplete.
