Chapter 4 Shattered Bonds

The forest tore at her like the claws of some vengeful spirit, but Lila barely felt it. Every beat of her heart sent a fresh wave of agony through her shattered soul.

She ran until her legs gave out, collapsing among twisted roots and damp earth, the smell of moss and blood thick in her nose. Somewhere deep inside, her wolf whimpered, broken and grieving. She had been chosen.

She had been rejected. Now, there was only the hollow ache of what might have been-and the crushing certainty that she was utterly, terrifyingly alone.

Her wolf howled inside her, a sound too raw for human ears to comprehend. It wasn't just heartbreak; it was soul-deep annihilation. A tearing apart so violent that it left her gasping, stumbling through the trees, each breath scraping like broken glass down her throat.

Run. Just run.

It was the only thought her fractured mind could grasp. She fled the Moon Rite grounds, the sacred clearing where her life had just been ripped in two. Her bare feet sliced against rocks and roots, but she barely felt the pain over the gnawing void expanding inside her.

Behind her, the ceremony staggered awkwardly forward, but Kael stood frozen at the edge of the gathering. His fists were clenched at his sides, knuckles bone-white, face a mask of indifference he wore like armor. Only he knew the truth-that beneath the cold, a storm of guilt raged, threatening to tear him apart.

He hadn't looked at her as he spoke the words.

He hadn't dared.

Lila's legs finally buckled under her, and she crashed to her knees among the trees, the scent of moss and damp earth thick around her. Her body convulsed as she shifted halfway, her wolf clawing to the surface in her agony. But she couldn't hold the form. She was too broken, caught between worlds-between who she was and who she would never be again.

Tears blinded her as she screamed into the empty forest. The sound tore through the night like a wounded animal's cry-raw, desperate, devastating.

Why?

Why had the Moon Goddess tied her fate to a male who wanted nothing to do with her?

Her wolf whimpered, shrinking back, a shattered mirror of what she had been just hours before. It wasn't just the bond Kael had rejected-it was *her*. Every part of her had been deemed unworthy under the pitiless gaze of the pack.

In the distance, the drums of the Moon Rite faltered, then fell silent altogether.

Lila curled into herself, shivering violently, arms wrapped around her ribs as if she could physically hold herself together. But she was splintering from the inside out, the bond that had once burned so brightly now reduced to ash.

Somewhere deep in the forest, a wolf howled mournfully. Not hers.

Never hers again.

---

At the edge of the sacred grounds, Kael still hadn't moved.

The weight of a hundred eyes bore down on him, but none of them hurt as much as the phantom echo of Lila's scent drifting away, ripped from him by his own hand.

His Beta, Roran, stepped up beside him. "It's done," he said lowly. "You made your choice."

Kael nodded stiffly. He couldn't afford weakness-not tonight. Not ever. Duty demanded sacrifice, and if his sacrifice was her... then so be it.

And yet, somewhere deep inside, a crack formed.

Small. Insignificant.

For now.

He inhaled deeply, forcing Lila's scent out of his lungs, pretending it didn't tear something vital from his chest to do so. Pretending it didn't feel like he was hollowing himself out, piece by bloody piece.

He would survive this.

He had to survive this.

The future of the pack depended on it.

Kael turned away from the silent, watching crowd, each step heavier than the last. He shoved down the image of Lila's face-those wide, shattered eyes-as easily as he shoved down his own guilt.

He was Alpha first.

Always Alpha first.

---

Lila didn't know how long she lay there, half-shifted and broken.

Eventually, the night grew colder, and numbness spread through her battered limbs. She forced herself upright, every movement agony. She staggered deeper into the forest, away from the village, away from the pack that had witnessed her humiliation.

"I can't stay here."

"I can't face them."

Not when every whisper would be a knife.

Not when every look would slice her open anew.

Her wolf was silent now, retreated so far into herself that Lila could barely feel her presence. The absence hurt more than the bond breaking.

She stumbled across the river, the icy water stealing her breath. Her torn dress clung to her, heavy and soaked. Branches whipped against her skin, and the night seemed alive with unseen threats. But Lila welcomed the pain-it was proof she was still breathing. Proof that something inside her still fought, even when everything else had crumbled.

As she climbed the hill beyond the river, she dared one last glance over her shoulder toward the village lights.

Goodbye, she thought bitterly. "Goodbye to everything I ever wanted."

The forest closed around her, swallowing her whole.

---

Kael sat in his war room, alone, long after the Moon Rite had ended. The fire in the hearth had burned low, casting long, twisted shadows across the stone walls.

He stared into the embers but saw only silver eyes filled with hurt.

"You did the right thing," he told himself again.

But the words tasted like ash.

A knock sounded at the door.

Kael didn't answer. He couldn't.

He wasn't ready to face anyone. Not yet.

Because somewhere out there, in the vast darkness beyond his walls, Lila was alone. Hurt. Broken.

And he had been the one to put her there.

His gut twisted painfully, and for the first time in years, Kael felt something he couldn't command away.

Regret.

He clenched his jaw, shoving the feeling deep down where it couldn't touch him.

He had made his choice. There was no going back now.

---

Far beyond the borders of the packlands, a pair of glowing eyes watched Lila's stumbling form.

Silent.

Predatory.

Patient.

Waiting.

The shattered bond had not just left her vulnerable to heartbreak.

It had made her vulnerable to everything else that lurked in the dark.

And something had already begun to hunt.