POV: Darius Nightshade
I had been pacing for three hours and it was not helping.
The hallway outside the isolation chambers was a straight line. Fifty paces one direction. Fifty paces back. Fifty paces one direction. Fifty paces back. My boots were making grooves in the stone floor and my wolf was losing its mind one step at a time.
Kael stood at the far end of the corridor like a statue. Ryker leaned against the wall between us, arms crossed, jaw tight. None of us were talking. What was there to say? The council had just taken our mate and locked her away and given her an impossible choice.
Choose. Reject. Die.
Those were the options.
Through the bond, I could feel Sera. She was terrified. That was the baseline now. Terror mixed with pain mixed with a desperation that matched my own. The separation was killing all of us in slow motion.
"They cannot do this," I said. It was the hundredth time I had said it in three hours. "This violates everything about mate bonds. The magic itself is rejecting this."
"The magic is irrelevant to the council," Ryker said without moving. "They have decided she is a problem. Problems get eliminated."
"Not while she is bonded to us." Kael's voice was ice. It always was when he was trying to hold himself together. "The moment they hurt her, we will burn this entire compound to ash."
He meant it. I could feel it through the bond. He meant every word.
The sound of the chamber door opening below interrupted us.
We all went still at the same moment. Predators sensing movement.
Guards came up the stairs first. Then priests in ceremonial robes carrying ancient texts. Then High Elder Theron himself, his face twisted with something that might have been righteousness or might have been hatred. It was hard to tell the difference with him.
"The severance ritual will begin," Theron announced like we had not been standing here knowing this was coming. "The omega will undergo the first rejection. We will attempt to sever her bond with one of you."
"Which one?" Ryker asked.
Theron smiled and it was not pleasant. "That will be for her to choose while the magic burns through her."
He descended back down the stairs with his priests trailing behind him.
Kael and I looked at each other. Through the bond, I could feel both of them. Kael's cold determination. Ryker's strategic calculating. And underneath all of it, the pure animal need to protect what was ours.
What was about to happen was going to hurt.
Three seconds later, I knew exactly how much.
The pain started like nothing. Like a small spark in the back of my mind. Then it grew.
Through the bond, I could feel Sera. I could feel the ancient magic wrapping around her. I could feel the priests chanting words designed to tear us apart.
The pain became fire.
It was not her pain and my pain. It was ours. All four of us connected by threads that were being torn at from the inside out. The magic was trying to cut the bonds like they were ropes made of flesh.
I dropped to my knees.
Across the hallway, Kael did the same. Even Ryker had to grip the wall to keep standing.
From beneath the stone, I could hear her screaming.
The bond was not meant to break. That was what the ancient texts said. That was what the forbidden knowledge told us. Trinity bonds were permanent. They could not be severed without destroying the souls they were attached to.
The council was trying to destroy our souls.
I tried to reach out through the bond. Sera. I am here. Stay with me.
Her terror spiked higher. The screaming got worse.
Then it stopped.
The silence that followed was almost worse than the pain.
Through the bond, I felt the moment the magic released her. The priests had given up. The ritual had failed. The bonds were still intact and burning brighter than before.
All four of us were gasping for air like we had been drowning.
Theron's voice came from below. Angry now. Frustrated.
"Prepare for the second ritual."
They did not wait long. Maybe an hour for everyone to recover enough to function. Then it started again.
The second ritual was worse. The priests had changed their approach. Different magic. Older words. More vicious intent.
The pain was like being torn in half while still remaining whole. Like every piece of me was being separated from every other piece.
I could not breathe through it.
I could not think through it.
All I could do was hold onto the connection through the bond and will Sera to hold on too.
The screaming came again. Hers and ours all mixed together.
This time it lasted longer before it stopped.
The bonds remained.
Theron tried again that night.
And again in the morning.
Four rituals. Five rituals. Six rituals.
Each one was a different kind of agony. Each one failed the same way. The bonds were getting stronger instead of weaker. The magic was responding to the attacks by cementing itself deeper.
By the third day, I could barely stand.
Kael looked like something that had been dragged through fire. His face was gray. His hands were shaking. But he kept standing there by the chambers like if he moved, Sera would disappear.
Ryker was quiet. Even quieter than usual. That meant he was terrified. Ryker did not do terrified often.
The third morning brought bad news that was almost a relief because at least it was a different kind of disaster.
A messenger rode in with reports of rogue attacks on the northern border. Fifty wolves. Maybe more. They had breached the territorial lines and were killing guards and destroying settlements.
Kael received the message and his entire body went rigid.
Through the bond, I felt the conflict in him. The need to protect his territory warring with the need to stay near Sera.
"You have to go," Ryker said. He had read the situation the same way I had.
"I cannot leave her," Kael said.
"You cannot defend your pack from here either," Ryker shot back. "If the Northern Frost falls, it destabilizes everything. The council will use it as proof that the bonds are making you all weak."
Kael's jaw clenched. He hated being right about tactical situations. He hated it more when the tactic meant losing.
"Go," I said. "We will stay here. If anything changes, we will send word."
He looked like he wanted to argue. Then he looked at me and Ryker and something in him broke a little.
"Take care of her," he said. Then he was gone.
The northern border was three hours ride away.
Kael was barely standing when he arrived.
I could feel him through the bond. The weakness. The exhaustion. The way his wolf was snarling at having to be split from us.
But he was an Alpha. And Alphas protected their people.
The rogues were worse than the reports suggested. There were closer to seventy of them. They fought like they had nothing to lose. Like they had been sent specifically to cause maximum damage.
Kael led the defense anyway.
He was swift and brutal and everything an Alpha should be. But his movements were slower than usual. His reflexes were just half a second off. The bond was pulling at him constantly. Every piece of his attention that was not on the battle was focused on Sera. On the connection screaming at him to come back.
He did not see the rogue coming from his left until it was too late.
The moment registered through the bond like ice water in my veins. Sudden. Complete. Terrifying.
Sera's terror spiked through all of us at the exact same moment.
In the isolation chambers, she gasped like she had been struck. Her fear was so intense it was like being burned from the inside out.
Kael's focus shattered.
His attention snapped to Sera instead of the battle.
The rogue's claws were already moving.
Aiming for his throat.