Chapter 3

ISABELLA’S POV

The Wizard placed the dagger in Zane’s hand.

I stood opposite my husband inside the mating room, staring at the blade as he turned it between his fingers. The ritual circle had been carved into the stone floor long before either of us was born. Now, the markings that had once witnessed our union would witness its destruction.

“Your hand, Alpha,” the Wizard instructed.

Zane drew the dagger across his palm without hesitation. Blood welled along the cut, and he held his hand over the circle. The Wizard began chanting in the ancient language, his voice filling the room as the words echoed against the stone walls.

When he approached me, I offered my hand.

The blade sliced through my palm. I barely noticed the sting before the Wizard guided my bleeding hand over the circle beside Zane’s.

Our blood dripped onto the carved markings.

The chant changed.

I felt my wolf stir inside me, suddenly restless. She knew what was happening, even if some desperate part of me still wanted to believe there was a way to stop it. She pushed against my ribs, reaching for the familiar presence on the other side of the bond.

Zane raised his head.

His golden eyes settled on mine, cold and unyielding.

“I, Alpha Zane Borislav of the Ashen Pack, break all ties with you, Luna Isabella. From this moment onward, you have no relation to me or to the Ashen Pack.”

The first tear slipped down my cheek.

The Wizard continued the chant, and the bond tightened between us.

Then it began to tear.

I dropped to my knees. The impact jarred my injured palm against the stone, but the pain in my hand was nothing compared to what was happening inside me. I clawed at the floor, my fingers scraping over the ritual markings as my body convulsed beneath the force of the severing bond.

My wolf lunged toward Zane.

I felt her reaching for him, desperate for the presence she had known since the day we became mates. She called to him through the connection, searching for his wolf, for the answering touch that had always been there.

Nothing answered.

I tried to draw breath, but a cry tore from my throat instead. The bond had been part of every instinct I possessed, woven so deeply into me that I had never imagined what it would feel like to have it ripped away.

My hand stretched toward Zane.

He stood within reach, close enough that I could see the blood running down his palm. I wanted him to take my hand. I wanted him to remember that I was the woman he had chosen, the woman he had brought before the pack and called his Luna.

He looked at my outstretched fingers.

Then he stepped back.

The movement was small, but it left me reaching into empty space.

The final thread snapped.

I collapsed forward, catching myself on my hands. For a moment, I couldn't understand the silence inside me. I reached instinctively for Zane again, searching for the familiar pull of the bond, but there was nothing to find. My wolf retreated into herself, wounded and bewildered, leaving me alone with the sound of my own ragged breathing.

Heat flared across my shoulder.

I cried out and grabbed at the mark beneath my skin. The burning spread until I could hardly bear to touch it. I pressed my palm against the spot, but the mark was already fading. Its edges blurred beneath my fingers, then disappeared completely.

When the heat finally subsided, I pulled my hand away.

My skin was bare.

The Wizard lowered his head. “The bond is severed, Alpha. The mark is gone.”

I stared at my shoulder, unable to look at anything else.

That mark had identified me as Zane's mate and the Luna of the Ashen Pack. Every wolf who saw it knew where I belonged. Now there was nothing left to distinguish me from a stranger.

“It's done,” the Wizard said quietly.

Zane wiped the blood from his palm with a cloth one of the attendants offered him. He didn't ask whether I could stand. He didn't look at my shoulder or acknowledge the blood smeared across the floor where I had fallen.

He turned toward the door.

“Zane.”

His name escaped me before I could stop it.

He paused, but he didn't turn around.

For one foolish second, I waited for him to say something. Anything. Even an order would have been better than the silence he left between us.

“Take her out,” he told the guards.

Then he walked away.

The door closed behind him.

Two guards approached me. One offered an arm, not kindly, but because I was struggling to rise and they had been ordered to remove me. I accepted the support long enough to get to my feet, then pulled away from him.

My knees shook beneath me. I wiped my injured palm against my dress and followed them out of the mating room.

The building stood apart from the palace, and the path toward the gates stretched ahead beneath the afternoon sky. The guards kept pace on either side of me, making it clear that I wasn't being escorted home.

I was being expelled.

By the time we reached the palace grounds, servants and guards had gathered near the gates. News had travelled faster than I could walk. They knew about the stranger in my bed, the accusations of treason, and the Alpha's decision to sever our bond.

Their eyes followed me as I approached.

“Traitor,” someone muttered.

Another voice carried across the crowd. “What a disgrace to the Luna title.”

I kept walking.

These were the same people who had bowed when I entered a room, who had come to me with their worries and waited for my decisions. I had known some of them for years. I recognised the maid who had once helped me choose flowers for the dining hall, and the guard who had stood watch outside my chambers during a winter illness.

Neither met my eyes now.

A servant stepped out of the group and spat on the ground in front of me.

I stopped for half a second.

The woman stared at me with open disgust, as though the act had been a small service to the pack. My face burned. I wanted to tell her that she didn't know what had happened, that I hadn't betrayed the people who had trusted me, that I was still the same woman who had served them as their Luna.

But the words stayed trapped behind my teeth.

They had already decided who I was.

The guards moved me forward again, and I crossed through the open gates without looking at the crowd. I could hear their whispers behind me, growing indistinct as the distance widened.

Outside the gates, I turned once toward the palace.

Its familiar windows caught the afternoon light. Beyond them were the rooms where I had lived with Zane, the gardens where I had walked beside him, and the chambers where I had once believed I was safe because the man I loved would never let anyone hurt me.

Now he had been the one to send me away.

I looked down at my bloodstained hand. I had no belongings, no money, and no cloak against the cold. I had been given no time to prepare, not even the chance to collect something that belonged to me.

The guards had already turned back toward their posts.

I was alone.

My stepmother would never welcome me into her home. She had never needed an excuse to remind me that I was unwanted, and the disgrace attached to my name would give her another reason to shut the door in my face. I had no family I could turn to, no friend who would risk standing against the Alpha King for me.

When night fell, I didn't know where I would sleep.

I started down the road.

The tears blurred the path, and I wiped them away with the heel of my hand. I kept my head lowered whenever someone passed, unable to bear the thought of another stranger recognising the woman the Ashen Pack had cast out.

Behind me, the palace gates began to close.

I didn't turn around again.

The bond was gone. My mark was gone. The home I had known was no longer mine, and the man who had once promised me a place beside him had watched me lose everything without offering a single word.

I walked on until the palace disappeared behind the trees, with no idea where I was going or what I would do when night fell.