LEAVING MY BETRAYING ALPHA
The black veins crawled higher, up his jaw and across his cheek, and I saw the muscles in his arms start to shake.
"Cassandra," he said. "Look at me."
I looked.
"I, Jason, Alpha of Nightclaw, release you from my mark." His voice cracked, then steadied, and I understood he was holding it together with sheer stubbornness. "I give up my claim before the moon and the pack. You are free to choose any wolf you want. And I'm sorry."
The wind stopped.
A sound tore out of him, not a scream, something lower and worse. His back bowed. Blood poured from his nose, his ears, the corners of his eyes. And on my neck, where his mark had sat for two years, a line of white fire burned out from the skin.