3 Chapter 3
Two more days passed.
When Damien saw Seraphina was recovering well, he finally remembered to go check on me.
He went to my small den and saw the empty stone bed.
A she–wolf was tidying up.
“The owner of this bed?” Damien’s voice had a slight edge of annoyance.
The she–wolf looked up and saw it was the Alpha, looking a bit flustered.
“She… she left the pack.”
Damien felt a stab of irritation when he heard that.
He thought, I just went through a Soul–Spark sacrifice, and instead of resting in the pack, where did she run off to? Is she holding a grudge against me?
He tried to reach out to me through the Alpha–mate mind–link.
But the link was dead silent. No response.
“Fine. If you’ve got the guts to die out there, don’t come crawling back to me, Damien stormed back to Seraphina’s den.
Seraphina noticed Damien’s anger and spoke softly.
“Is Elara still mad? Won’t she forgive you?”
“it’s all my fault. I’ll go talk to her right now, so you two don’t misunderstand each other because of me.”
Seraphina made to get out of bed, but Damien immediately stopped her.
“Why bother with her? Your job right now is to get better.”
“That way, when the elders hear you’re healed, they’ll be happy.”
“As for Elara, she’s not going to die. She’s already left the pack, probably went back to her little birth pack.”
Damien remembered me begging him on the altar, and a knot of discomfort tightened in his
chest.
He didn’t understand why, as pack members, I wouldn’t help a packmate like Seraphina. Then, seeing Seraphina always thinking of me, he felt even more strongly that I wasn’t as
C
3 Chapter 3
understanding as Seraphina.
He thought, If she’s going to be so stubborn and leave, let her cool off on her own.
Once Seraphina was fully recovered, he could always send outriders to find me. It wasn’t a big deal.
In the Alpha’s council den, a few core warriors were joking around.
As soon as they saw Damien walk in, they clammed up.
Damien found it odd.
“What were you guys talking about?”
No one said a word.
After a moment, his Beta, a close friend, slung an arm around Damien’s shoulders.
“What else? Talking about how devoted you and your future Luna are, of course.”
Damien thought about me, forced to give up one of my Soul–Sparks.
He figured I must… care for him a lot. It was a gift from the Moon Goddess, after all.
Even though I was forced, at least I helped him and saved Seraphina.
With that thought, he forgave my sudden disappearance. But he was still angry that I wasn’t answering his mental calls.
The Beta saw the frown on his face.
“Is it… that Elara girl, still in a mood?” he meant me.
Damien didn’t answer.
The Beta continued, his voice full of admiration for Seraphina.
“Seraphina just went through such a terrible ordeal, it’s normal for her to be a bit down.”
“You should be extra considerate, Alpha. Do something to cheer her up, like take her on the moonlight hunt tonight”
Damien listened to his Beta, and his brow slowly smoothed out.
He remembered I seemed to like a type of glowing flower that grew at the edge of the forest. He decided to pick some after the hunt; maybe that would get me to stop being angry.
Damien, holding a string of glowing flowers, went back to the den we shared, though I was the one who mostly lived there.
Chapter 3
“Elara? I picked your favorite glowing flowers.
No one answered.
He’d just put the flowers down when he saw it on the stone table: the mate–bond severance I’d scratched out with my claws a week ago the moment I found out he wanted me to sacrifice my Soul–Spark, I’d written it in despair.
Damien stared at the blood–scribed words in the ancient script, disbelieving.
He thought, Seriously?
It was just one Soul–Spark.
And she dares to try and break our bond over this?
Damien angrily threw the glowing flowers to the ground, and the petals shattered.
If you don’t want this home, then never come back!”
Just then, the pack’s signal horn blew.
Damien picked up the communication crystal.
“Alpha Damien, elders from Elara’s distant birth pack are here. They say they have urgent business with you, and they’re asking about Elara.”
It was my distant relatives, the ones who’d pretty much cut me off. All the
was inter–pack deals.
ever talked about
Damien thought for a moment. Only these so–called “family” members could force me to show myself.
Besides. Seraphina was almost fully recovered.
So he told Elara’s distant pack elders about Seraphina’s recovery through the Soul–Spark transfer and invited them to the pack for a talk.
