Chapter 4

The nights in the West Tower were deathly silent.

I sat on the rickety iron bed, listening to the north wind howl outside, a lonely echo of the storm that had shattered my life six months ago. Only this time, I held no more illusions.

The small, barred window faced the estate wall, but through it, I could see the distant, warm glow of the main house. I knew Sebastian was in there, with his new family.

And I was a ghost, forgotten in the cold.

I reached for the back of my neck, where a small, silver mark was imprinted—the official seal of the Elder Council. Every pack member had one, a conduit to the pack's collective consciousness, a record of their identity, status, and permissions.

Tonight, I was going to use it for something I should have done long ago.

Closing my eyes, I sank my consciousness into the mark, feeling the thrum of the pack's ancient power. Soon, the Council's archive materialized in my mind—not a library, but a nexus of the pack's collective mind, an archive woven from a thousand years of memory.

I found the rite I needed: Petition for Bond Severance.

It was one of the oldest and most sacred laws. When a mated pair's bond was broken beyond repair, either party could petition the Moon Goddess to sever the spiritual connection, completely and irrevocably dissolving the union.

The process was irreversible. And excruciatingly painful.

My spectral fingers trembled as I filled out the ethereal form:

Petitioner: Sophia Ashford

Mate: Alpha Sebastian Nightshade

Reason for Petition: The foundation of the bond has been destroyed by betrayal and the introduction of an outside bloodline. To continue it will only cause greater spiritual harm to both parties.

Date: Tonight

Signature: Sophia Ashford

The moment I willed it to be submitted, a tremor went through the entire pack's network.

A Petition for Bond Severance was instantly broadcast to all relevant parties: both mates, the Elder Council, and...

Sebastian.

I could feel his shock and fury crash against our crumbling mind link. The emotions were a tidal wave, threatening to drown me.

Less than five minutes later, the door to the West Tower was thrown open with such force it slammed against the stone wall.

Sebastian stood there, clad only in silk pajama pants, barefoot in the snow that had drifted onto the threshold. His eyes were burning with a wild rage, his chest heaving.

"Are you insane?" He stormed over to me, his voice shaking with anger. "A bond severance? Sophia, do you have any idea what that means?"

I watched him quietly, a strange sense of peace washing over me.

"I do," I said softly. "It means there will be nothing left between us. You can be with Elena and your children openly, without the inconvenient stain of a failed mate."

"You think this is what I want?" Raw pain flashed in his eyes. "Sophia, I know things are broken between us, but this is not the answer! The Elders are traditionalists; they will never approve this. And besides..."

He paused, his voice growing desperate.

"Besides, the process of severing the bond could kill you! Your wolf is already weakened by the trauma. Forcibly tearing your connection to an Alpha… your spirit can't handle that kind of backlash!"

I laughed, a dry, self-mocking sound.

"So you're worried I'll die?" I stood up to face him, eye to eye. "Or are you worried that the death of your barren mate will bring shame upon you in front of the other packs?"

"Sophia!" he roared, wounded. "I have never, ever looked down on you because you couldn't have children! Never!"

"Really?" I shot back. "Then why did you refuse to even discuss adoption? Why did you let your parents humiliate me in front of you and say nothing? Why did you choose Elena and her child without a second's hesitation?"

He opened his mouth to argue, but I pressed on, my voice rising with every question.

"Why, tonight, when that baby was seizing in my arms, was your first instinct not to protect me, but to order me away from my own home?"

Each question was a knife twisting deeper. I could see the agony on his face.

But I no longer cared.

"Sophia, it's not what you think..." his voice was a desperate plea. "I admit I've made so many mistakes, but please, withdraw the petition. We can fix this, but not like this..."

"Like what?" I sneered. "Like you locking me in this tower? Humiliating me in front of the entire pack? Or like you sleeping next to another woman every night while I rot in here alone?"

His face went white, as if I’d struck him.

"My... my arrangement with Elena is for the future of the pack, for the bloodline..."

"For the bloodline," I repeated his own damning words. "Yes, that's the core of it all, isn't it? I was a means to an end. And when I couldn't fulfill my purpose, you threw me away."

"No!" he yelled. "You were never just a tool, Sophia! You were my mate, the woman I loved..."

"'Loved'?" I seized on the word. "Past tense. You said it yourself."

He fell silent, the despair in his eyes a bottomless pit.

Just then, an urgent mind-link message burst into the room, so frantic it made us both flinch.

It was Elena's voice, laced with terror.

"Alpha! Alpha, come quickly! The pups have a dangerously high fever, their life-force is fading! The healers say… they say it might be a bloodline backlash from the unstable bond! They need your power to stabilize them!"

The color drained from Sebastian's face.

I looked at him, feeling that strange, cold calm return. Another choice. Another test.

And I already knew the answer.

"Go," I said quietly. "Your children need you."

He looked at me, his eyes a battlefield of pain and conflict. His hands trembled, as if reaching for me, but they fell uselessly to his sides.

"Sophia… I'll be back. We'll talk..."

"There's no need," I shook my head. "Sebastian, I've given you enough chances. Tonight was the last one."

He tried to say something else, but Elena's cries echoed in his mind again, more frantic, more hopeless.

"Alpha, please, they're getting worse! The healers say they might not make it!"

I could see the war raging inside him. But I also knew that when it came to a choice, he would always choose those two children. It wasn't wrong for a father to do so.

But it meant that in his heart, I would never, ever come first.

"Go," I said again, this time sending the word directly into his mind through our fraying link. "Your heirs are waiting."

He gave me one last look, his eyes brimming with unshed tears and a despair that mirrored my own, then turned and bolted from the room, a man running from his own ruin.

I listened as his footsteps faded into the snowy night.

Then I sat back down on the creaky iron bed.

Soon, the sounds of frantic activity drifted from the main house—the running feet of healers, urgent voices, the faint, pained cries of the pups.

And I listened to it all, a detached observer to a life that was no longer mine.

I don't know how long passed before the sounds finally died down. I felt a wave of relief ripple through the pack's collective mind—the children were stable.

The sounds of celebration followed, faint howls of joy for the heirs' recovery.

And as I sat alone in my prison, listening to them rejoice, the last ember of warmth in my heart finally went out.