THE THREAD REMAINS (XANDER’S POV)

The moment the guards left, the strength drained out of my spine.

I gripped the edge of the war table before my knees gave way. The maps scattered beneath my hands, parchment crumpling as a violent pulse tore through my chest–Pain.

Not mine, Hers.

A sharp, sudden jolt; like a rope yanked tight between us.

I inhaled sharply, Impossible.

“I rejected her,” I said under my breath, forcing the words into the empty room as if speaking them could make them true. “The bond should be gone.” But It wasn’t, I could still feel her. Faint, distant, but alive.

Every heartbeat… I knew it. Every flicker of fear…it echoed inside my ribs. My wolf paced restlessly beneath my skin, claws scraping against bone, refusing to settle.

You failed, it seemed to growl.

I slammed my fist into the table and the wood cracked under the impact. A rejection from an Alpha should sever the mate bond completely,  It always had, for generations, what had changed?

Yet the thread between us still held, I closed my eyes, and immediately I knew where she was, not precisely, but direction. Lower grounds, near water. I cursed and pushed the sensation away. I could not afford this weakness. Not now. Not when the prophecy was finally awakening.

A knock sounded.

“Enter.”

My Beta, Rowan, stepped inside. He stopped when he saw the broken table, “So it’s true,” he said quietly. “You can still feel her.”

I didn’t answer, the silence was answer enough. Rowan shut the door behind him. “The elders said once you rejected her, it would end.”

“So I thought!”

Silence streatched between us.

Then he asked the question we had both been avoiding: “You’re certain she’s the one?” My jaw tightened. “Of course she is; The moment her scent reached me, my wolf recognised her before I did. The bond formed instantly.”

“Then why…”

“Because she cannot be my mate.”

The words tasted like ash.

I walked to the window overlooking the territory. Torches flickered below, the pack settling into uneasy quiet.

“You remember the old records,” I said.

Rowan’s face darkened. “The sealed prophecy?”

I said nothing.

He exhaled slowly. “We were never sure it was real.”

“It is.”

I turned back to him.

“They would hunt her,” he said.

“They would kill her,” I corrected.

My chest tightened again, a dull ache this time.

“She is weak. Untrained. Her wolf has barely stirred. She would not survive a single political season, let alone a war between kingdoms.”

Rowan looked at me carefully. “So you humiliated her… to hide her.”

“I severed her from the throne… I …”

The door opened again without permission.

Selene entered.

Rowan stiffened immediately.

She moved gracefully, the lamplight caught along the pale fabric of her dress, turning it silver against the dark stone walls. 

Rowan straightened immediately.

“My Alpha,” she said, tilting her head.

I didn’t correct the title.

Her eyes moved first to the broken table, then to the splintered wood scattered across the floor, she said nothing about it, instead she moved closer, calmly, observant.

“You dismissed the guards,” she noted gently, “ I was told you wished to be alone.”

“I did.”

“And yet,” she said, stepping a few steps away, “you’re not resting.”

She paused,

Her eyes lifted to my hands.

“You’re listening.”

My expression didn’t change

“To what?”

She paused a little long, then said

“The same thing the whole court yard felt,” she replied softly

“The moment  you touched that girl.”

“She’s a servant.”

Selene did not argue, instead she moved towards the window overlooking the lower grounds.

“You moved before anyone spoke, even before she cried out.” She turned, fully facing me this time, “ I have watched you lead for years, you do nothing without intent, not in public.”

Her voice was certain and calm, too calm, “a rejected mate should not hold an Alpha’s attention, but yours follows her.”

My wolf stirred, not visible, but present in the tightening air.

She noticed, and smiled faintly.

“I am not questioning your authority, I’m questioning your intentions, your certainty.”

Rowan shifted uneasily, “Selene…”

She ignored him

“If the bond really is broken, then why does the territory still feel…unsettled?”

“You presume too much”

“Perhaps.” she said.

She turned towards the door, but paused before leaving

“One piece of advice, Alpha,” I did not answer

“If she really is nothing, you will not need to watch her.”

A brief silence 

“But if you continue to feel her…,” her eyes met mine, “ then someone else will notice soon.”

She stepped out of the room.

Rowan waited until her footsteps had faded did he exhale

“She knows,” he said quietly.

“Yes,” I answered.

And that made everything worse.

Night deepened.

I hadn’t slept, I couldn’t. I sat alone in the dark when it happened again, a shift in sensation. Her pain had been sharp earlier,  but now…Calm.

 My wolf lifted its head instantly, and I knew it wasn’t my making. A low growl vibrated in my chest before I realised it had escaped my throat. Territorial instinct surged violently through my veins; another  presence was close to her–male, powerful.

Almost immediately, a pounding knock on the chamber doors, a guard rushed in, breathless, dropping to one knee.

“My King, scouts report an intruder has crossed the northern boundary.”

Ice slid down my spine, I knew it

Because the bond had reacted the moment he stepped into my lands.

“Identify him,” I ordered. The guard hesitated, before answering 

“Unknown, your majesty, the scouts only confirmed that someone crossed the northern boundary, no one saw him enter…”

The guard was still speaking when it happened; pain exploded through my chest, not the normal dull ache since the rejection, this was different, sharp, and violent as if someone had attacked her.

Fear slammed into me through the bond so suddenly my breath caught in my throat; her fear, I could feel it intensely as though she had been taken.

“Prepare the army.” I said coldly, because if they had taken her, the next war had already begun.

And this time, it would start with me.