Chapter 17 – The Sounds from the Bed

The packhouse had shifted from a place of authority into a cruel, drawn-out torment chamber.

Strange enough, Zebub didn’t kill me with a single strike using the incomplete bond, that would’ve been too quick, too merciful I think, for a fifth wheel in the relationship. Instead, she chose a more insidious method. She kept Vance in her bed almost nonstop, knowing that the tether between us was still alive, a live wire that burned with every passing hour.

Because she refused to accept the triangle mating, torturing me with the pain of the betrayal of my mate was her best bet.

Most days, I was slumped against the cold stone of my office floor or curled in a corner of the library, gasping as phantom heat and disturbing sensations tore through my body. It was a violation on a unimaginable level. Every touch Vance gave her, every breath she drew from him, vibrated through my skin, making me feel haunted by a ghost that refused to stop screaming.

‘Make it stop, Amani. Please,’ Sara’s whimpered in pain.

Once fierce, my wolf now resembled a fragile, hollow shell. ‘I can’t breathe. It’s like drowning in boiling oil. It’s too much.’

‘I’m trying, Sara,’ I murmured, my voice barely mine, sounding like someone already halfway to surrender.

‘Willow doesn’t hear me anymore,’ she wailed, the grief pure, enough to make my own heart stutter. ‘He’s lost in the haze. He’s drunk on her. He used to love us... shelter us. Now he’s the one setting the fire and locking the door.’

It was true.

Willow, Vance’s wolf, had become so consumed by the bond that he had abandoned the years of history he shared with Sara. He was a creature driven by instinct alone, and that instinct told him Zebub was the only thing that mattered. The new found bond had turned him into a stranger.

Days bled into an endless, hellish cycle of endurance.

The pain of betrayal wasn’t just emotional, it vibrated through my muscles, causing atrophy, sinking my eyes into shadow. I was becoming a ghost in my own home, a specter nobody bothered to bury.

One Tuesday afternoon, the atmosphere in the packhouse grew unbearable.

 The psychic noise from their joining was deafening, I could feel my heartbeat skipping in rhythm with theirs. My skin felt like it was aflame, and the mark on my neck throbbed with jealous heat.

 I had to escape from this first! Adjust my plans before the siphoning left me too weak to crawl.

I staggered out through the back service entrance, vision swimming, and dragged myself toward what I hoped would be sanctuary.

I didn’t make it to the water. I collapsed a few yards from the lake’s edge, my face hitting the damp moss as consciousness slipped away.

When I opened my eyes, the world around me was no longer cold and damp.

I lay on a soft bed, covered in thick, heavy furs that smelled of cedar and something ancient. The air was warm, filled with the scent of woodsmoke and rosemary.

I was inside a small, sturdy hut.

Through the window, I saw a cluster of similar structures, a tiny village nestled deep within the neutral zone. My eyes fell on Menelik sitting on the edge of the bed. He moved towards me, in wrapped his arms around me with an overwhelming, mountain-like strength, pulling my back against his chest.

I tensed instinctively, waiting for the familiar jolt, the phantom pain that reminding me of Vance’s betrayal.

But it didn’t come.

I blinked, shifting my focus to the bond. It was silent, no agonizing feedback, no searing heat.

I couldn’t believe what my mind registered. I was still linked to Vance, but in Menelik’s arms, the bond was blocked. As if his presence created a shield, a barrier the Alpha’s mark couldn’t penetrate.

“You’re awake,” Menelik whispered relieved.

He pressed his face into the crook of my neck, careful to avoid the mark but stayed just above my shoulder.

“I found you by the water. You looked like a wraith, Amani. Your heart was barely beating.”

“I don’t feel it,” I whispered, clutching his forearms as if they were the only thing steadying me. I leaned into his warmth, soaking in the rare peace. “But now the pain. The noise. It’s all gone.”

“I’m holding it back,” he explained softly. “My blood... it doesn’t like his mark. It pushes against it.”

We stayed like that, the quiet of the hut a stark contrast to the chaos of the Eclipse Star. I stayed close, Sara sighing in a rare moment of peace, until I sensed a distant heaviness through the bond.

Vance and Zebub had finally fallen asleep. Their exhaustion signaled a temporary ceasefire in my torment.

I slowly turned in Menelik’s arms, gazing into his intense, dark eyes.

“It’s been weeks,” I whispered. “She’s doing it on purpose. She doesn’t just want the title, she wants to shatter my mind through the tether. Every time they’re together, it’s like I’m being dismantled, piece by agonizing piece.”

Menelik’s expression hardened. His grip on my waist tightened, knuckles white.

“She’s a monster. And he’s a coward for letting a rogue weaponize that sacred bond to murder the woman who built him.”

He took my face gently, his thumbs stroking my cheekbones with tenderness that nearly made me cry.

 “Listen, Amani. You can’t stay there while they do this. Your wolf is dying. You’re dying. When it starts again, when they keep you in agony for hours, come here. Cross the border. My guards are instructed to let you through. Come to this hut, and I’ll hold you until the signal stops. I won’t let them kill you through that tether.”

It was a lifeline, a dangerous, romantic hope that felt like a dream in the middle of a warzone.

But even as my heart fluttered at his offer, the rational part of me began to weigh the risk. Pack laws were cold, unforgiving. The cost of treason was high.

“Menelik, I have doubts,” I whispered trembling. “If I keep coming here, and Vance realizes I’ve found a way to block him out, he’ll come after me. He’ll think I’m plotting. And spending every day in your arms... it’s just trading one leash for another. I can’t be a fugitive. I need a solution for this, something permanent.”

“You won’t be,” Menelik promised, leaning closer until our foreheads touched. His breath was warm, tinged with mint and wild air. “Let me be your refuge, Amani. Just for the hours when you can’t breathe. I don’t ask for your loyalty, only the chance to keep you alive until you are ready to take back what is yours.”

“They’ll wake soon,” I said, already dreading the return to that place. The thought of walking back into that situation made my skin crawl.

“Then stay a little longer,” he urged, pulling me back into the furs and tucking the blankets around us. “Rest in the quiet. Let Sara recover.”

Sara stirred in my mind, a faint spark of her fiery self returning.

‘Stay,’ she whispered. ‘Just for a little while. His presence is healing, and somehow, I feel like he is the harbor we’ve been searching for. The Alpha’s assault cannot reach us here.’’

I closed my eyes, letting the warmth of the hut drown out the darkness I’d fled.

Every moment of peace felt stolen, but for the first time in weeks, I wasn’t afraid of the dark.

I was simply tired of being alone.