“And you ended it,” Cora said. “Not him.”
“Yes. The day broke my heart, being so close to him without acknowledging what we were to each other.”
She looked at Marco. “I saw you watching us at the party. We accidentally ended up across the food table from eachother, and when I turned, I saw you watching us. I’d like to know what you saw.”
Marco was quiet for a moment before saying, “I saw two people managing an impossible situation with considerable pain on both sides.” A pause. “I saw his brothers clock it. And I saw him navigate that without lying and without betraying either of you, which was not a simple thing to do.”
“Do you think I’m crazy for doing this?”
He held her gaze. “No one can make this decision for you, and I can’t tell you how he’ll respond. The feelings are clearly present on both sides, but you already know this. What happens next? If you do what you’re considering?” He spread his hands slightly. “That’s between you and him. I can’t add to what you already know.”
She nodded. She’d known that would probably be his answer, but she’d still had to ask.
Cora leaned forward. “You understand what you’re asking. This isn’t a transfer to another pack. This is full severance, with major legal implications. Permanent, unless you can convince Kenny to take you back, or find another alpha to take you in.”
“I understand.”
“Kenny will know the moment it’s done. I’ll speak to him before you leave Homewood.” Cora’s voice was even, not unkind. “He’ll be angry with both you and the situation. He’ll need time.”
Tuesday didn’t trust her voice, so she nodded.
“Your family remains your family. Blood doesn’t change. But the pack energy, the bond, the connection you’ve feltsince you were old enough to oath — that ends. All of it. At once.” She sat back. “It’s going to hurt worse than you can imagine.”
Tuesday breathed out. “I figured.”
“I’ll need you to ask me to do it now, and then restate it later, just before I do it.”
“Please sever my ties to the pack.”
Her grandmother breathed out in pain, and Tuesday looked at her.
“Your decision, and I’ll support you in it. I’ve already told you I’ll always be your grandmother, no matter what.”
Cora stood, walked around the table to an open area of floor, and told her, “You’ll want to be on your knees for this, not because I’m alpha and I demand it, but so you don’t fall on your face or your ass when I sever the bonds and you lose… all of it. At once.”
Tuesday stood and walked to her, then went to her knees.
Cora’s fingers suddenly had sharp claws on the ends, and she swiped across Tuesday’s cheek with one of them. The claws disappeared, a finger collected the blood dripping down the side of her face, and Cora lifted the finger to her own mouth. Licked it.
“You’ll need to say you wish to be a lone wolf, that you wish to cut all ties to the pack, and you deny the oaths you made to both Randall and Kenny,” Marco said from behind her.
With her heart in her throat so tight it was hard to get the words out, Tuesday said, “I wish to be a lone wolf, to cutall ties to the pack. I deny all oaths made to Randall, and then again to Kenny.”
Cora’s power moved through her like a storm, and then her world turned inside out, permeated by pain.
She’d thought it would feel like something being taken, but it felt as if she was emptied.
Like a sound she didn’t know was ever-present was suddenly silenced, and thatlackwas more painful than anything she’d ever felt in her life.
A frequency playing every moment of her life, suddenly switched off. The power and heat that’d pulsed through her blood since she’d firstchangedwas simply gone. Severed.
She fell on her side, grateful Cora hadn’t done this when she was standing. Tears and snot flowed. She tried to scream, to somehow alleviate the agony, but couldn’t draw enough breath to power more than whimpers.
The pain was everywhere and nowhere. Her very soul had been severed from the energy that’d powered it, and she had to figure out how to get what she needed from the universe. From the air around her. The pain was in every cell of her body. In every raw nerve ending.
And in her heart and soul.
Cora walked away, and Marco crouched beside her. “I won’t do you any favors by offering energy for a short time. Breathe in your own power. That’s all you’ll have now. What you can breathe in and hold onto.”
