Chapter 4

Elana POV

The Guardians loomed over me, hulking shadows with fur bristling silver in the moonlight. I knew them. I knew the souls beneath the beast. Mark and Sarah.

I had drafted the blueprints for their mate-cabin with my own hands.

"Mark," I said, my voice fracturing. "Please."

The massive wolf released a low, vibrating whine in his throat, his ears flattening against his skull. But he didn't move. An Alpha's Command overrode every instinct of friendship.

"Seize her," Hayden commanded, her voice shrill with triumph.

"Wait!"

Emilio burst through the patio doors, looking elegantly disheveled. "Hayden, what are you doing?"

"She was trying to run, Emilio!" Hayden cried, instantly shrinking into a posture of performative terror. "She threatened Leo! She said she was going to hurt him just like she hurt her own baby!"

"Liar!" I screamed. The injustice struck me harder than a physical blow. "You poisoned him against me!"

I looked at Emilio, desperation clawing at my chest. "You know me. Emilio, look at me. You know I would never hurt a child. I built this pack's nursery!"

Emilio looked at me, then at Hayden, who was clutching Leo to her chest and sobbing into his shirt. Then he looked at the watching Guardians.

He had to choose. The unstable, 'childless' mate, or the mother of his heir.

He looked at me with dead, shark-like eyes.

"You're hysterical, Elana. You need to cool off."

"Cool off?" I laughed, a broken, jagged sound that scraped my throat. "You killed our child yesterday, Emilio! And now you're letting your mistress hunt me?"

"Don't call her that!" Leo screamed.

The boy snatched a jagged rock from the garden path.

He didn't hesitate. He threw it.

It hit me square in the forehead.

Pain exploded behind my eyes, white-hot and blinding. I stumbled back, feeling the warm, sticky trickle of blood map a path down my face.

My inner wolf snapped.

I didn't Shift-I was too weak, my body too broken-but I lunged. Not at Leo, but at Emilio. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to tear that look of bored indifference right off his face.

"STOP."

The Command hit me like a physical wall.

I was ready for it this time, but it didn't matter. It was like a mountain falling on a glass house.

I slammed into the gravel face-first. My healing womb tore open again. I felt the warm, sickening gush of fresh blood soaking my grey dress, pooling between my legs.

"Take her to the border," Emilio said. He sounded exhausted, as if taking out the trash was too much effort. "Dump her."

"Emilio?" Hayden asked, sounding faintly disappointed. "Not the cells?"

"She's bleeding out," Emilio said coldly, checking his watch. "If she dies in the cells, the Council investigates. If she dies as a Rogue in the woods... it's just nature."

He walked over to where I lay in the dirt, paralyzed under the crushing weight of his Command. He crouched down, his cologne smelling sickeningly sweet mixed with the scent of my blood.

"You were a good architect, Elana," he whispered, his voice devoid of pity. "But you were never a Luna. A Luna knows her place."

He stood up and turned his back. "Let's go, Hayden."

The Guardians grabbed my arms. They dragged me. My legs trailed uselessly through the gravel, then the grass, and finally the mud.

Pain was my entire world. Every bump was a fresh agony.

They reached the edge of the territory. The cliff overlooking the river.

"Sorry, Elana," Mark whispered, his voice thick with shame.

They threw me.

I fell. The wind rushed past my ears, screaming. I hit the water with a bone-shattering smack.

The cold seized my lungs like an iron fist.

As I sank into the dark, freezing water, I reached into the deepest part of my mind. There was a golden cord there. The bond. Frayed, blackened by betrayal, but still pulsating, still attached to him.

*I, Elana Thomas,* I thought, projecting the words with the last ember of my strength, *sever this tie.*

I imagined a pair of heavy, rusted shears.

*Snip.*

The pain was blinding. Worse than the fall. It felt like my soul was being ripped in half by a dull blade.

But then... silence.

The heavy, suffocating weight of Emilio was gone.

I let the river take me.