Phantom Pain

Damien POV

I stood in the ceremonial circle for a long time after everyone else had left. The moon had set. Dawn was breaking over the eastern mountain ridge. My father and Vanessa had returned to the pack house hours ago, but I couldn’t move from the spot where Sera had knelt. Where you had destroyed her.

My wolf was silent. He hadn’t spoken a word to me since the rejection. It was his own form of punishment. Wolves were not supposed to reject their mates. The bond was sacred. Breaking it went against every one of our instincts, and my wolf made sure I fully understood what I had done. The ground still showed burn marks where the silver light had scorched it. I crouched down and touched one. The earth was still warm. Whatever power had come from Sera, it had left a lasting mark on this place. Just as she had left a lasting mark on me.

“You’re still here.” Elder Corvus’s voice made me flinch. I hadn’t heard him approach. The old wolf moved like lightning. “Lingering in your guilt won’t change what you did.”

“I know.” My voice sounded hollow even to my own ears. “I just needed…”

“What? Forgiveness? Absolution? A time machine to go back six hours and make a different choice?” Corvus said. “The girl is gone. The milk is spilled, and there’s no going back.” He lowered himself carefully onto a nearby stone, moving like a man whose joints ached. “She went into neutral territory. Your father sent trackers after her, but they lost her trail at the eastern border.”

Ice flooded my veins. “Lost?”

“She was picked up. There were vehicle tracks and the scent of two males—one of them an Alpha.” Corvus looked at me with eyes that had seen too much. “Your father believes it was rogues. I believe it was something else.”

I stood up. My legs were stiff from sitting so long. “What do you mean?”

“Did you see the silver light, boy?”

“Everyone saw it.” The memory hurt. Sera kneeling there, her power pouring out of her like a broken dam. Her eyes had been pure silver. Not the primal wolf-gold she used to have, not human. Something ancient, terrifying, and beautiful. Too weak. I had called her too weak.

The Moon Goddess must have been laughing.

“Do you know what it means?” Corvus asked.

“You said something during the ceremony about bloodlines. About things that should have stayed hidden.”

The Elder was silent for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice was grave. “Your mate—your former mate—is a Moon Wolf.”

The words hit me like a blow. “That’s impossible. Those are just stories.”

“I thought so too. I had even hoped so.” Corvus stood and walked to the edge of the forest. I followed him without thinking. “The Moon bloodline was supposed to be extinct. Hunted down and wiped out over two centuries ago. But what I saw tonight was Moon magic. Pure and untainted.”

“Why would anyone hunt them?”

“Because they are dangerous.” Corvus stopped at the edge of the forest where Sera had disappeared. “Moon Wolves possess a power no Alpha can match. They can manipulate bonds, summon the light of the moon, heal fatal wounds. In the wrong hands, they could wipe out entire packs. Destroy the fragile hierarchy that holds us together.”

I thought of Sera. The small, quiet Sera who apologized when she took up too much space, who smiled when pack members mocked her gentleness. She had loved me with all her heart, even though she knew I would always put duty before passion. I simply couldn’t call her dangerous. The word didn’t fit.

Yet I remembered how the ceremonial wards had shattered, how every wolf on the clearing had backed away from her in fear. I remembered her gaze with those silver eyes, as if she could look straight into my worthless soul. Maybe “dangerous” was exactly the right word.

“My father knew,” I said. The pieces clicked into place. “That’s why he insisted so strongly on the rejection. He didn’t want me mated to someone who could challenge his authority.”

“Marcus suspected something was different about the girl—the timing of her birth, certain small signs. But I don’t think even he realized she was a Moon Wolf.” Corvus turned to face me. “The question now is what you’re going to do about it.”

“What can I do? The rejection is final. The bond is broken.”

“Is it?”

I opened my mouth to say yes, of course it was—I had felt it break. But then I paused. There was still something there. A phantom pain in my chest that had nothing to do with the pain of rejection. An urge pulling me east, toward where Sera had gone.

“Moon Wolves are different,” Corvus said. “Their bonds don’t follow normal rules. You rejected her, yes. But she is still your soulmate. That doesn’t just disappear because you were stupid enough to throw her away.”

“And what does that mean—”

“It means you are tied to her fate, whether you like it or not.” The Elder frowned. “And it means that whoever picked her up at the border knows exactly what she is. No one takes a rejected wolf across the borders unless they have a reason. A very good reason.”

My wolf finally stirred. He pushed against my consciousness with raw urgency. Rage. Our mate was in danger, and we were standing here talking instead of searching for her.

“I have to find her,” I said.