Chapter 7

I returned to the empty penthouse. The entire place was as silent as a grave.

I took off my trench coat and sat down on the sofa.

My phone screen lit up with an encrypted email. The buyout for my personal medical patents—eighty million dollars—had cleared into my anonymous offshore account.

With this money, I could leave the West Coast for good and build an independent lab on the other side of the continent.

I took a sip of ice water. My eyes fixed on the digital clock on the marble coffee table.

The Moon Goddess's thirty-day countdown was reaching its end.

The digital timer clicked down to zero—Severance Finalized.

A wave of destructive agony exploded from the crook of my neck, tearing through my body.

I shook violently, hands clutching my chest against the crushing spasm.

The backlash of ripping a soul bond apart was a thousand times worse than I imagined. My inner wolf let out a guttural, agonizing wail. A thick rush of blood surged up my throat.

I clamped my teeth down hard. Digging my nails into my palms, I swallowed the metallic taste back down.

The pain rattled me to the bone, but in my eyes, there was only cold relief.

Fighting the agony, I pushed myself up and walked to the living room fireplace.

The flames were roaring.

I threw in every old piece of clothing carrying Kallum's scent. Then came the neural research logs tracking four years of his feral rampages.

Flames ate the paper, turning four years of devotion into ash in seconds.

I opened my phone camera and aimed the lens at my face.

My skin was paper-white, but my voice stayed completely level:

"Kallum, by the time you see this, the thirty-day severance window has closed."

"Four years ago in the Rockies, your wolf went feral. I nearly shredded my own soul to keep you alive and left behind the calming serum. I thought you would see me eventually. But your heart always belonged to Scarlett."

"I give you your freedom, and I take back mine. We are done."

I saved the video and hit send.

I set the vintage camera on the center of the clean coffee table, right beside the official Mating Bond Severance Agreement.

I pushed open the door, stepped into the cold night, and never looked back.

Across the city, flames lit up the night outside Scarlett's apartment.

Kallum snapped the throat of the last Blackbone attacker, flicking the blood from his claws. Scarlett sobbed behind him, clinging to his back.

Just as Kallum turned to order his guards to sweep the area, his massive frame froze.

It hit him like a lightning strike.

A blunt hammer drove straight through his heart. His vision blackened in an instant of sheer, tearing agony.

In the next second, the four-year-old bond connecting his soul to Sierra went dead.

It was not a mind shield.

It was pure, hollow nothingness—as if she had never existed in this world.

"Alpha! What's wrong?!" Rowan yelled in terror, lunging forward to catch Kallum as his knees buckled.

Kallum went ghostly pale, cold sweat dripping from his forehead. He shoved Rowan aside, clutching his violently spasming chest. Pure, wild terror flooded his eyes.

"Sierra..."

He didn't spare Scarlett a single glance. He sprinted to his armored SUV, threw himself inside, and floored the gas pedal.

Ten minutes later, the penthouse door flew open with a violent crash.

Kallum stumbled into the dark living room. The place was freezing. No lights. Not a single trace of his Luna's scent.

His eyes snapped to the coffee table.

Beside the old film camera lay the document, stamped in red by the High Council of the Moon Goddess.

Two names were signed on the final page.

One was Sierra's neat, steady handwriting.

The other was his own careless signature—signed thirty days ago in his office just to rush downstairs and comfort Scarlett.

Kallum Stryker.

Another brutal wave of tearing agony ripped through his chest.

Kallum clutched his burning heart, staring down at his own signature as his eyes turned bloodshot with sheer horror.

He finally understood what that dying agony meant.