Chapter 4 ：The Bond Snaps

[Sera's POV]

The bond tears loose the instant his words land.

It rips through my chest like something inside me is being torn out by the roots. I fold over the archive table, my nails scraping across old wood, a scream caught somewhere in my throat that won't come out. My knees hit the floor. Every breath hurts.

This is what dying feels like.

The bond that tied me to him for three years snap one by one, and each one burns. I press my hand to my chest as if I could hold my own soul together. I can't.

Kai's footsteps move away. He left immediately after saying that. He doesn't stay to watch.

I don't want him to.

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I don't know how long I stay curled on that floor.

The pain dulls into a hollow ache, and my mind drifts to the day everything began. Three years ago. Liri vanished, and the whole pack tore itself apart searching for her. Then rogues came for Kai in the eastern woods, and I threw myself in front of the blade meant for his throat.

He named me Luna after that. Out of gratitude, maybe. Out of debt.

The pack never forgave me for it. They didn't dare touch me, so they turned on my mother instead. An omega who'd come from another pack years ago, quiet and gentle and always keeping her head down. They shoved her, spat at her, called her filth in the halls.

Kai found out. I still remember his voice cracking across the courtyard, the way three grown wolves dropped to their knees when he was done with them. After that, no one so much as looked at us wrong.

He protected us once.

My throat tightens.

I press my palm to the cold floor and remember a night from a year ago, my head in Mother's lap, her fingers stroking my hair.

"What if my mate rejects me one day?" I'd whispered. "What if he sees I have no wolf and throws me away?"

Mother had smiled softly. "Then he was never yours to begin with, my star. And you will walk out with your head high, and you will never look back."

I press my lips together until they stop trembling.

I'm walking out. I'm not staying in this pack another night.

I push myself up off the floor.

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Three days later, I can finally force myself to stand on unsteady legs. I decide to leave.

The door opens before I reach it.

Kai fills the doorway, his dark eyes sweeping over me. "You can barely stand."

"I'm fine." I say coldly.

"You're not." He steps inside. "You need to rest, not—"

"I'm leaving." The words come out flat and certain.

For a second, he actually looked at me. Concern flickering across his face, his brow drawing tight.

He still cares.

Something in me wavers, weak and pathetic, for one heartbeat.

Then I remember. He cut the bond himself. There is nothing left to care about.

"You're too weak to travel," he says. "I won't allow it."

A laugh scrapes out of me, bitter and raw. "You won't allow it? You already rejected me. We're not mates anymore! You don't get to decide anything about me. Not where I go, not whether I stay, not whether I live or die. Do you understand? You gave that up!"

His jaw tightens. "I am still your Alpha."

I lift my chin. "You're nothing to me!"

"As your Alpha, I command you to stay."

The command makes my body react before I can stop it. My feet stay in place, and my head lowers on instinct. I fight against it, forcing my chin up. My whole body shakes as I resist him.

He crosses the room fast. His hand closes around my wrist.

Warmth floods up my arm, and I hate it, I hate how my body leans toward his, how three years of wanting him doesn't die just because the bond did. Heat pools low in my stomach. My breath catches.

I wrench my arm free before I can betray myself further. "Don't touch me!"

He stares at me, breathing hard. "You don't have to go. I know you can't be Luna anymore. But after everything, after three years," His voice drops. "Stay. Be my mistress."

The room goes silent.

Mistress.

Not mate. Not Luna.

Something he keeps in a room and visits when it suits him.

Rage burns through the pain, hotter than the bond breaking.

My hand flies before I think.

SMACK.

His head snaps sideways. My palm stings. For the first time, genuine shock breaks across his face.

"Your mistress?" My voice shakes. "You think I'm a toy? Something you keep on a shelf and use when Liri's asleep? I'd rather starve in a rogue ditch than let you touch me again."

I turn for the door.

"Your mother."

I freeze.

He steps closer, his voice low and certain, that Alpha steel underneath it. "You think you'll survive out there alone? Wolfless, half dead? Your mother is still in this territory, Sera. Under my protection." His eyes hold mine. "You walk out that door, and I can't promise the pack will keep treating her kindly. Stay, and she wants for nothing. I'll shield her the way I always have. You know I will."

He means it. Every word.

Kai steps closer and blocks the door. “Stay,” he says. “Your mother will be safe.”

His voice is calm. Certain. He doesn’t move aside.

My hands curl into fists. “You’re shameless.”

"Sera—"

"Get out!"

He studies me for a long moment. Then he turns and leaves, the door clicking shut behind him.

The second he's gone, my legs give out. I sink onto the edge of the table, both hands pressed flat to my stomach.

There's one thing he doesn't know. One thing no one knows but me.

I can't stay. I won't raise this child in his house, under his rules, as his kept woman.

My fingers tremble against my belly.

I'll find Mira tonight. She'll help me. She has to.

I won't let anything of his grow inside me.

I won't.