Chapter 54: Darius

The cold collision of my skin against rock jars me back into consciousness as the council guards walk away from me, leaving me in the mud with nothing but the echoes of their laughter. I knew this could happen. I just never believed it would.

I push up out of the muck, trying to get a sense of where they’ve dumped me. Even that’s a struggle. I’ve never felt so weak, even when I was transitioning. Death hurt less than this. It’s as if a piece of every cell in my body has been violently ripped from me. It’s so quiet, startlingly alone, after feeling so many connections for so long.

It’s no wonder there are so few rogue alphas. The few that survive the pack bonds breaking likely end things themselves just to escape the isolation. That won’t be me. I’m stronger than this. I can come back from this.

The terrain is rocky here, and there’s a chill on the breeze, but no sounds of civilization. I’m not near a town. Mountain peaks peek over the trees around me. The road the guards brought me he