Chapter 9

For three days, Zander had barely slept.

Ever since the bond had broken, a dull ache had throbbed in his wolf's core, a constant reminder of something vital being ripped away.

He tried to numb himself with work, handling pack business for seventy-two hours straight, but the hollowness only intensified in the dead of night.

Every time he closed his eyes, Ember's cold, indifferent gaze haunted him.

"Alpha, this is the document Miss Ember had sent to her parents."

Marcus's hand was trembling, as if the parchment itself were scalding hot.

Zander took the document. A single glance was enough to drain the color from his face.

Writ of Familial Severance.

The blood-red script was a death warrant, freezing the notoriously ruthless Alpha to the spot.

"No... impossible..."

His voice was a ragged rasp, his hands shaking violently.

It was the most absolute rite of familial rejection in werewolf culture. Once enacted, it was irreversible.

She was really erasing every trace of her past, including her