CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SIX

The Edge of the Cliff

Silas’s POV

My paws thud against the earth in a desperate rhythm. I leave upturned dirt, stones and sticks in my wake as I charge through the woods.

My eyes widen as the faint scent of her wafts through my nose on my left and I veer so hard, I ram into a tree, the sound of wood cracking interrupting the silence of the forest.

The pain doesn’t register as I thunder on in my haste to catch up to her.

The forest is dark, the suffocating scent of pine threatens to throw me off her sweet scent but I shake it off. I push my wolf at a brutal, reckless speed and the air in my lungs feels like breathing in fire.

And then it hits me like a ton of bricks.

The pain is instant and all consuming, travelling from the crown of my head to the tips of my claws, my whole body spasms and I fall face-first into the dirt. I let myself lie here as the needle-like stabbing sensation shifts and settles in my head.

Without the thick fog of Noelle’s powers numbing my mind, the mate bond is back in full effect, the pain of the rejection slices through me like a thousand jagged edges of broken glass.

What have I done? Goddess, what have I done?

Every cell in my body bleeds for her. The bond is a severing line of pure agony pulling me towards the direction of the border of The Black Ridge.

I had called her the most awful things, I looked into her terrified eyes with a coldness while my wolf was tucked away, muted in the dark corners of my mind.

Hold on, Emery. Please, hold on.

Still in wolf form, I stagger to my feet on shaky legs and snake out my fur. The wind shifts and the dizzying scent of her engulfs me, settling my aches a little and I can think clearly.

But tied right beneath that intoxicating scent is a heavy, metallic stench that makes me stiffen.

Blood.

Her blood.

My wolf draws back and lets out a frantic growl and tears through the thick patch of brambles on our way, following the scent. It would seem Noells hadn’t just used me, she had sent people to make sure Emery never made it out of these woods alive.

I burst through the treeline, breaking out onto the wind-swept, barren ledge of the Black Ridge.

The five enforcers Noelle dispatched are standing at the edge of the cliff, their postures frozen in stunned silence.

“Where is she?” I roar as I shift back to my human form.

The sound of my voice makes them jump, spinning around as their faces drain of color when they see the rage in my eyes.

I don’t give them a chance to think, I close the distance in a split second, grabbing Kade by the throat and slamming him so hard against the stone cliff wall that the rock cracks behind him.

“Where is my mate?!” I snarl, my wolf snaps at the surface, eager for blood and my grip tightens till his eyes start to roll back. “Tell me where she is before I separate your head from your shoulders!”

“A-Alpha…” Kade chokes out, his hands clawing uselessly at my wrists, tears of panic sliding down his face. “We…we didn’t touch her! We just cornered her here…we were just following Luna's orders…”

“She is not your Luna!” I throw him to the ground and plant my foot on his chest, crushing his ribs until he gasps for air. “Where is Emery?”

One of them, Jax, points a trembling finger toward the edge of the cliff.

“She…she looked at us,” Jax whimpers. “She wouldn’t let us get her…she just looked at us with such hatred and when she screamed at us, I swear I could hear a wolf in there and then she just…” he stops and looks away. “She jumped.”

The world stops.

The sound of the howling wind vanishes completely. The rage swirling in my chest instantly turns into an icy, hollow emptiness.

“What did you say?” My voice is quiet, calm, not the thunderous roar it was a moment ago and that has them backing up and looking for the nearest exit.

“She-she jumped, Alpha,” Lowe stutters, dropping to his knees. “She just threw herself over the edge and into the blackness.”

I stumble backwards, releasing Kade. He sputters and gasps for air, I don’t care as I trudge on legs that feel like they are made from lead to the edge of the stone precipice.

The Black Ridge yawns beneath me, a world of black stone canyon, covered in swirling dark grey mists that look black from certain angles. It is covered in lethal sharp rocks hundreds of feet below, no one survives a fall into the Ridge, not even our kind with our advanced and quick healing, not even an Alpha.

A flash of color catches my sight and there, caught on a jagged piece of rock fifty feet down the drop, is a tiny, shredded piece of blue cloth, the seam is soaked in dark, fresh blood. A piece of the thin dress she had been wearing when I destroyed her.

“No…”

The word tears out of my throat, broken and small.

I fall to my knees at the mouth of the drop, my hands digging into the cold and sharp stone until my fingernails begin to split and bleed. The mate bond doesn’t just ache, now it snaps, leaving behind a cold and empty space where my soul used to be.

I had driven her to this. My failure to protect her had forced her to take her own life, my weakness to Noelle’s spell had all led to this.

My wolf throws his head back and lets out a gut-wrenching howl of pure agony that bursts free from my mouth and echoes off the canyon walls. I close my eyes, a single tear cuts through the dirt on my face and I rest my head against the bloody rock.

I’m sorry, Emery. I am so sorry.

“Silas!” Matthias’s voice breaks the silence that has enveloped us, my Beta finally catching up, his eyes widening in horror as he takes in the scene.

“Silas, step back from the ledge! What has happened?!”

I don’t answer. I cannot move. I just stare down into the mist, wishing with everything in me that I could jump down and trade places with her. I must have stayed like that for a long time because when I raise my head, I see the first glow of dawn setting in.

“Silas…” I feel Matthais’s hand gently touch my shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Silas.” He says quietly. I look up and notice that it is just the two of us here. He must have dismissed the enforcers at some point.

“She was my mate, Matt,” I say quietly, looking into the distance. “She was mine and I looked her in the eyes and ripped her heart out.”

“You were under a spell,” he says softly but I shake off his words.

“We are very much aware of how Noelle uses her power to get her way in the pack. We should have done something about it a long time ago.” I retort.

“We did, remember? We put laws in place to keep her in check, but she’s relentless and conniving, we couldn’t have seen this coming.” He reminds me.

“We could have done better,” I abruptly get to my feet. “I should have been prepared for something like this to happen. What kind of Alpha doesn’t have contingency plans in place to prevent being mind-controlled when they have someone with that kind of power in their pack?” My breath is ragged when I finish speaking and Matthais looks away.

“You know how long I’ve been searching for her, I wouldn’t have cared if she was wolfless and now I-” I stop myself as the grief overtakes me again.

I didn’t deserve her as my mate and whatever punishment the Moon Goddess sees fit to give me, I would gladly take it.

For now, I need to restore order in my pack. I didn’t even know Emery was being abused, that’s how terrible of an Alpha I am.

Matthias guesses the route my thoughts are taking as he stands and comes to shove me lightly.

“Don’t,” his voice is rough. “You couldn’t have known, they hid what they were doing to her really well and it is much my fault for not paying closer attention.”

I look towards the path leading back to the pack grounds, the resolve settling in me with fresh clarity. Nevermind the ache throbbing in my chest or the guilt that wraps around me like a barbed quilt.

My mate had endured years of pain right under my nose and that is something I will not let go.

Emery may be dead, but I will not let her suffering be in vain. I turn to face Matthias slowly and look him dead in the eye.

“Who hurt her?”