Chapter 20

Zaiden's POV 

Cole…

“If anyone would have told me my Beta would become the pack snitch, I wouldn't have believed you know." I saw his eyes widen. I could tell that colour drained from his face.

“Tell me I didn’t just see what I saw,” I growled.

Cole’s face hardened, but his voice was smooth. Too smooth. “Alpha, it isn’t what it looks like….”

“Don’t.” My snarl cut him off, sharp as a blade. “Don’t you dare lie to me.”

“You know to even think I trusted our bond more than so much that I couldn't point out what my mate actually said made it more unbelievable." 

I immediately mindlinked the warriors to come to the exact spot cause I would need help taking him to the dungeon I smirked as if noticing my thoughts he charged at me I was able to dodge as fast as possible 

He was fast, his claws came out, teeth bared but I was faster. I twisted aside, his swipe cutting through empty air. The ground split where his strike landed, dust exploding upward.

Before he could reset, I drove my elbow into his ribs. 

“You’re too slow,” I taunted, circling him, my wolf growling just beneath my skin.

He snarled and lunged again, this time faster, his movements more deliberate.He spun with a backhanded strike that nearly took my head off. I ducked low, sweeping his legs out from under him.

He hit the ground hard, but rolled, springing back up with wolfish fury. His eyes gleamed. “You can’t stop me.”

“Watch me.”

I lunged first this time, my fist cracking against his jaw, sending him staggering. He instantly retaliated, claws raking across my shoulder. Pain flared hot, but I didn’t slow.

We collided again, a blur of fists, claws, and snarls. Every strike was met with another, every dodge answered with a counter. My wolf surged, urging me to finish it, to tear him down.

He came in low, aiming for my gut, but I caught his wrist, spun him, and slammed him face-first into the dirt. My knee pressed into his spine, claws poised at his neck.

He froze, chest heaving.

For a moment, only silence stretched between us, broken by our ragged breaths. Then bloodied lips curling he smirked.

“You still don’t see it, do you?”

“I do actually…” I said as I pressed more into his spine.

“I guess nobody told you about messing with the Alpha "Zaiden” I said as I chuckled but you know what I'm going to make you pay dearly for it.

Immediately I sensed my warriors marching through the place.

" Alpha?.” I heard Caleb, my Gamma calling.

Karen’s POV

I sat in the small room I’d claimed for myself, far from Zaiden’s chamber. 

I could still hear his words in my head. Pathetic. Coward. Not bold enough to be his Luna.

My fists clenched at my sides. The worst part wasn’t his anger it was that part of me believed him. That maybe he was right, that maybe I was just dragging him down.

I paced the room, back and forth, my wolf restless beneath my skin. She hated this distance. She clawed at me, demanding we go back to him. But I can't not after what he said the mate bond actually has a way of worsening issues. I couldn’t face him not after the way he looked at me. 

I moved to the window, peering out into the night. The training grounds were empty, patrols stretched thin across the borders. The packhouse itself was unusually quiet, but very tense. I could see warriors marching out.

Whispers trailed through the corridors beyond my door. Snatches of voices nervous, uncertain. 

“…the Alpha’s at the borderline…”

I pressed my back against the wall, heart hammering against my chest. Borderline? 

My wolf growled low, unsettled. Whatever was happening out there, it was shifting everything. I didn’t know how, but I felt it in my bones.

And then, just as I closed my eyes, the bond between us flared hot searing with anger, fury, and something else.

Zaiden.

Something was happening to him.

I grabbed my cloak, but stopped halfway to the door. No. Not this time. I wouldn’t throw myself into his battles. Not when he’d made it clear I wasn’t ready, not when every step closer just made him push me further away.

Still, the ache of the bond wouldn’t fade. My wolf clawed harder, whispering, He needs you. He always needs you.

But I stayed rooted, trembling in the silence. I felt like I really hated the matebond this time, it badly wanted to make me look “pathetic" as Zaiden would say.

Until the moment I felt it like a shiver tearing through my soul. I felt the bond with the pack snap like someone had been torn out of it.