9 Chapter 9
Seraphina looked at the bracelet in Damien’s hand, and the devouring darkness in his eyes, and alarm bells screamed in her head.
In Damien’s other hand, a memory crystal appeared, flickering with broken images and sounds- he’d just forced them out of a junior priest Seraphina had bribed. It recorded Seraphina’s true, ugly self.
“You think the Alpha will truly love you just because you’re back in the pack?”
“Dream on. A wild mutt from some backwater pack. Even if you become Luna, you’ll still stink of low birth.”
“You’ll spend your whole life struggling in that barren land with your pathetic kin.”
“You think you’re worthy of mating Alpha Damien? The Moon Goddess must be blind.”
“The elders have already said, once I’m well, they’ll officially announce me as the Alpha’s true mate. You, this so–called Luna, you’re just a placeholder.”
“See? You’re just useless trash in this pack”
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“You think I can’t make Damien force you to give up your Soul–Spark? You’ll give it up, alright.”
“I told you, you can’t win against me.”
“You don’t have a powerful birth pack, and soon you won’t have the Alpha’s favor either. What are you still doing alive?”
“If I were you, after giving up my Soul–Spark, I’d just find a quiet place and end it. Don’t dirty the pack’s sacred ground”
The images and voices from the crystal were vile, full of insults, curses, and plots against me.
Damien couldn’t imagine what I must have been thinking, hearing those words, then facing his demands.
His eyes were bloodshot, his hand gripping the memory crystal so tightly his knuckles were white. “Tell me! Was this you?!” His roar shook the den.
Seraphina frantically clutched her furs. “No, it was Elara! Elara did it to frame me!”
“She couldn’t stand giving me her Soul–Spark, so she staged this whole thing! Damien, don’t let her fool you!”
“She’s probably hiding somewhere, watching, just to make you doubt me, to ruin our bond!”
Chapter 9
“She’s so evil! I just… I just needed one of her Soul–Sparks!”
“She’s perfectly fine! Probably ran off with some rogue wolf by now, and made up all this fake stuff to trick you!”
Seraphina shrieked and wailed, trying to win sympathy with her tears.
Damien’s mother couldn’t take it anymore. She walked over to Seraphina’s bed. Years of pent–up anger and guilt over her son exploded. She slapped Seraphina across the face with all her strength.
Seraphina never expected the Alpha’s mother, who had always been so gentle with her, to hit her.
“You hit me for that bitch? What’s so good about her? She’s just a half–breed mutt, an abandoned, no–good piece of trash!” Seraphina shrieked, her ugliest, most venomous side revealed.
Damien couldn’t hold back any longer. He let out an inhuman roar. The full force of his Alpha power slammed into the room. His hands shot out, closing around Seraphina’s throat, yanking her off the stone bed. “What do you think you are?” His golden wolf eyes had turned a terrifying. bloodthirsty red.
“You really think I liked you? That I let you have Elara’s Soul–Spark because of you?”
“If it weren’t for Elara’s Soul–Spark, do you think I would have even looked at you twice?”
The first time Damien saw me, he’d felt something strange, a deep thrumming in his soul, a sense of familiarity.
He hadn’t known how to describe it.
But when he saw me, he felt a sense of peace, an attraction, an instinct to be close.
Back then, Damien thought it was the Moon Goddess showing him special favor, giving him the perfect mate.
But now, Damien finally understood. It was because of me.
Because of the Soul–Spark bond I had unknowingly forged in his soul long ago.
Seraphina clawed at Damien’s hands, struggling, her wolf spirit whimpering in terror under his Alpha power.
The distant pack elders huddled together, trembling. “Moon Goddess, how did our pack get dragged into such a disaster?”
Just as Seraphina was about to be choked to death, Damien’s mother and the Pack Chieftain managed to pull the enraged Damien away.
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Seraphina escaped Damien’s grasp and fell to the floor, coughing violently, her eyes wide with
terror.
Once she could breathe again, she pleaded with the elders and Damien’s mother. “Mother… Elders… It was all Elara’s trick! She did all of this!”
“Quick, go find her! Then the truth will come out!”
Seraphina didn’t notice the mix of disgust, fear, and pity on their faces. She was still trying to
blame me.
The elders did nothing, just shook their heads sadly.
Damien looked like he couldn’t take it anymore.
He couldn’t stand the thought of my Soul–Spark, that pure gift from the Moon Goddess, being linside a venomous she–wolf like Seraphina.
Damien suddenly snatched the obsidian dagger from his belt–the one I had personally polished and given him for his coming–of–age ceremony.
As everyone watched, consumed by a destructive madness, he plunged it deep into Seraphina’s chest, right where my Soul–Spark had been placed.
Seraphina was too busy pleading with the elders to notice Damien’s move.
Damien put all his strength into it, driving the entire blade in.
For a moment, the den was filled with gasps, screams, and cries for help.
Damien watched Seraphina fall to the ground, blood soaking the furs, her wolf spirit’s light rapidly dimming, then finally extinguishing.
He stumbled backward until he hit the cold stone wall and slowly slid down.
“Elara… Your Soul–Spark… I’ve given it back to you…” he mumbled, his voice broken.
“Come back… please… Without you… my wolf spirit can’t live either…”
But the only answer was the chaotic screaming in the den, and the tearing pain and emptiness from the broken Soul–Spark bond in his own chest.
The other priests and warriors of the pack rushed in. When they saw the scene, they all gasped in horror.
