All Chapters of Alpha's Little Secret: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

RIVER"River," Rhea had said softly, "if you're going to ask me about severing a mate bond... you need to be absolutely sure about what you want. This isn't some small magic. It's not... trimming threads. It id liberally ripping a vein out of your chest, and sometimes... sometimes people do not make it."I had swallowed once.She was not wrong. A bond was not something created lightly. The moon goddess did not give mates to people lightly."I know.""No," Rhea had pressed then, leaning forward. "You need to be deadly sure, because once you do it, once you cut it... that's it. There is no going back or undoing it. You won't ever feel him again. Ever. Even if you wanted to."I knew that. I had known that long before I asked her for the information. And still...Despite the ache behind my ribs, the cold and hot thrum that had been following me since the moment I met Kael in that damn riverside, I knew this was what needed to be done. Would it be like splitting one's soul with a chainsa

RIVER"Well, you can't do it all alone. The severance takes five steps," Rhea said. "You have to work on it very carefully with the five steps. Claim him fully while also breaking the bond internally by repeating the words, I reject you. It'll take a whole month though."A whole month.Did I have a whole month to lose? There was only one way to find out.Kael came the next day to the apartment and I found him in the kitchen, with no one else there. No one else was home. He was staring at the coffee pot like it had done something to him.“River...”Claim him fully... repeat the words.I didn't let Kael finish whatever sentence he wanted to say. I crossed the room, grabbed the front of his shirt, and basically slammed him back against the counter. The cups rattled from how hard that was.The scent of the man... pine and the woods, hit me so hard my knees almost buckled. How could someone like him smell like home all the time?"No need to talk." I said, and kissed him hard enough to leav

RiverI could barely sleep after the fourth step of the severance.My body felt wrung out, my mind scraped raw, and every breath that came out of me caught at the top of my chest as it had nowhere else to go.Yeah, it was that bad.Rhea was already awake when I walked into the living room, sitting cross-legged on the floor, and drawing patterns in the air with her finger like some sort of child playing a game.She looked up the moment I entered, and her expression shifted to one that almost looked like pity.Did I look that bad?"Good, you're back," she said softly. "We need to talk about the last and final step."I froze. "Can't you wait till morning?"Rhea shook her head. "No, it can't. The fifth step severs the mate bond once and for all." She hesitated a bit, biting the inside of her cheek. "That is the one part I hadn't told you about."Yeah, yeah. She had told me I needed to do the first four before this so there would be no mishap."You should have told me.""You were so set on

RIVERThe red wolf stood like a nightmare turned flesh.I had never seen one as large as him... her? Massive, and towering, the fur that impossible shade of blood, lit from within like there were embers in him.Brent and the other wolves moved backwards a bit, raw, instinctive fear taking them back. Nothing in the pack lands should radiate that kind of dominance that was not Kael.It took me a while to remember how to breathe.For a second, there was no forest, no Rhea trembling behind me, no single form of pounding of boots or growling warriors around us. There was only the red wolf, with those bright eyes fixed on Rhea and I, and filled with an intelligence I couldn't even start working around.Yeah, there was something definitely going on here that I couldn't even start thinking about.The wolf stepped forward a bit, placing itself between Rhea and I and Brent. It was protecting us."What.. the... hell..." I found myself whispering once more.I didn't get to finish though, before B

KAELThe whole place reeked of blood.Leaves were crushed into the mud, bark of trees filled with claw marks that was not natural in any way.“Here,” someone shouted from ahead.I broke into a sprint. They were scattered through a small clearing, with their bodies slumped against the trees or just sprawled across the forest floor like some sort of discarded weapons.Warriors.My warriors.At least a dozen of them, some were still unconscious, some groaning as they dragged themselves upright. A few were already shifting back into their human forms, limbs shaking, with their faces drawn tight with pain.Brent was sitting against a fallen log at the edge of the clearing.Oh, he was alright... shit, he wasn't. Brent’s arm hung at a rather unnatural angle, his jaw clenched as he braced his shoulder against the wood."Don't move," I barked, already crossing the distance. Brent snorted through clenched teeth. “Too late.”With a sharp, muffled grunt, Brent shoved his shoulder forward. There