8

Meanwhile, Marcus was returning to the hospital with my favorite strawberry cake.

He pushed open the door to my room and found the bed empty.

"Elena?" He looked around, his voice rising in panic. "Elena!"

A nurse rushed in.

"Alpha Marcus, the Luna left about an hour ago."

Marcus's expression became terrifying.

"What? Where did she go?"

"I… I don't know. She said she was just going out for some air…"

Marcus stormed out of the room, frantically calling for me through our mind-link.

There was no response.

I had already severed the connection.

He found Adrin in his office at the pack headquarters, standing ramrod straight and holding a document.

"Adrin! Where is Elena?" Marcus demanded, grabbing him by the shoulders.

Adrin silently handed him the file.

It was a copy of the rejection petition.

When Marcus read the first line, his entire world crumbled.

Formal Petition to Reject Alpha Marcus of the Shadow Moon Pack…

"Alpha…" Adrin's voice trembled. "The Luna… she knows."

"Knows what?"

"Everything. About Rylan, about the Black Stone Pack, about… about everything."

The papers in Marcus's hands began to shake.

Suddenly, he let out a guttural roar and ripped the documents to shreds, the pieces fluttering around the room like snow.

In that same instant, an invisible claw ripped through his chest—the searing pain of the mate bond beginning to tear.

Marcus coughed, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the floor as he dropped to his knees.

"No… Elena can't do this…" He struggled to his feet and seized Adrin's collar, his eyes wild with desperation. "Tell me where she is!"

"Alpha, let her go," Adrin said, tears streaming down his face. "You've hurt her too much."

"No!" Marcus roared, a sound of pure agony and rage. "She can't. She's mine! I won't let her go! Tell me where she is!"

"Let her go, Alpha."

Adrin looked at the shredded paper on the floor, then at Marcus, who was kneeling and spitting blood.

"You've already done more than enough damage."

"Damage?" Marcus struggled to his feet, his eyes blood-red. "Everything I did, I did for her!"

"For her?" Adrin took a step back. "You did it for Cecilia, not Elena!"

"I love Elena!" Marcus roared, his hands trembling. "Do you have any idea how much I've done for her?"

"I saved her family from bankruptcy! I gave her the best life!" A crazed light gleamed in Marcus's eyes. "I made her the most respected Luna in the world!"

"I go with her to Rylan's grave every single month, even knowing I was the one who put him there!" he clutched his chest. "Every time I see her cry, it feels like my own heart is being ripped apart!"

"But I owed Cecilia so much!" Marcus's voice cracked. "Elena was the reason Cecilia lost her legs, the reason she can never be a mother! I was just trying to find a balance!"

Adrin gasped.

"Balance?" Adrin's voice began to tremble. "You call murdering your own pup balance?"

Marcus's face twisted in agony.

"I gave Elena five years of happiness! Five years!" he screamed. "I held her every night and told her I loved her! I bought her the most expensive jewelry, the most beautiful clothes!"

"But every time she smiled, so genuinely happy, all I could see was Cecilia in that wheelchair!" Tears mixed with blood streamed down Marcus's face. "Why did Elena get to be so happy while Cecilia had to suffer so much?"

"And what did Rylan do wrong?" Adrin roared. "What did that five-year-old pup do to deserve any of this?"

"He… he was the price…" Marcus's voice dwindled to a whisper.

"The price?" Adrin finally snapped, grabbing Marcus by the collar. "You poisoned your own flesh and blood with wolfsbane!"

Marcus slammed against the wall.

"You handed your pregnant mate—the Luna you swore to protect—over to our enemies!" Adrin's eyes burned with fury. "And because of you, she lost a second pup!"

"Watching her get tortured in the Black Stone Pack's dungeons, it was killing me, too!" Marcus defended himself. "The mate bond made me feel every ounce of her pain!"

"Then why didn't you stop it?"

"Because… because it was what she owed Cecilia…"

"And you call that love?" Adrin screamed. "You call this twisted, sick revenge love?"

The question left Marcus stunned, rooted to the spot.

He remembered Elena when she was pregnant with Rylan, so beautiful and so happy.

He remembered how his own hands had trembled as he’d added the wolfsbane to Rylan's milk.

He remembered hiding in the shadows, weeping, as he watched Elena cradle a dying Rylan in her arms.

"I… I do love her…" his voice was faint. "But every time I saw her happy, I thought of Cecilia in her wheelchair…"

"So you decided to destroy her? To destroy your children?" Adrin let him go. "Marcus, do you have any idea what you've done?"

Marcus clutched his chest as the tearing pain of the mate bond intensified.

Suddenly, he realized what he had truly lost.

It wasn't the satisfaction of revenge, nor was it settling his debt to Cecilia.

It was Elena.

The mate who had loved him with her entire being, who had once looked at him as if he were her whole world.

It was the Luna who, even after the devastating loss of their son, had still tried so hard to build a family with him.

The sensation from the mate bond was no longer a simple tearing, but a soul-searing agony, branded with the truth.

"I can't lose her…" Marcus finally collapsed to his knees, begging. "Please, tell me where she is."