Chapter 3
A heavy blizzard rolled over the territory the next morning.
I was in the apothecary cabin, packing my medical kit for the journey.
Suddenly, the door flap was ripped open.
A blast of freezing wind and snow rushed in, and Lila collapsed to her knees in the snow just outside the doorway.
"Healer Elara... I'm begging you..."
Tears streamed down her face the second she spoke. Her hands, red from the cold, gripped the doorframe in a death grip.
"The pup is innocent. The healer said if I abort him, I'll never be able to have children again..."
She looked up at me, her thin animal-skin clothes trembling violently in the wind.
"I don't want a title. I don't want anything. I just want to give birth to this Alpha pup..."
"I can stay in the pack as the lowest servant. I'll fetch your water, I'll wash your feet..."
I stared down at her.
A twenty-year-old rogue Omega, her eyes wide with manufactured panic.
"Get up," I said, my tone flat.
Instead, she let out a piercing shriek and lunged forward, grabbing my wrists.
"I won't get up unless you promise me!"
"Caden said you love him! This is his flesh and blood in my stomach! Can't you have just a little mercy on a mother and her child?"
Her nails dug viciously into my skin.
A sharp sting flared on my wrist.
Just as I tried to yank my hand back, heavy, frantic footsteps crunched through the snow outside.
Caden burst into the cabin. He shoved Lila behind him, shielding her completely with his body.
He snapped his head toward me, his brow knotted in furious disbelief.
"Elara, if you're mad, take it out on me! Don't make things hard for her!"
The only sound left in the cabin was the crackle of burning firewood.
I slowly lowered my arm.
On my wrist, several deep scratches were welling with beads of blood.
But Caden's eyes never once looked at my bleeding hand. His gaze was entirely fixed on Lila's hands, which were protectively clutching her stomach.
He stood there like a wild beast guarding its young, blocking Lila from me.
Lila cowered behind his massive cloak, her shoulders hitching with quiet sobs.
I took in the pathetic scene.
The Temporary Bond mark on my wrist sat right beneath the bleeding scratches she had just given me.
I finally spoke, my voice barely a whisper.
"Caden. Look at you. Your instincts have already made the choice."
"In your heart, she and that bastard pup with Alpha genes need your protection more than I do."
"No!"
He took a desperate step forward, reaching for my hand.
I took a half-step back, avoiding him completely.
"Elara, she's pregnant. She can't take the stress. I was terrified she'd lose her mind and hurt herself, or hurt you..."
Lila let out a muffled, choked sob from behind him.
Caden instinctively glanced back at her.
That one second was all I needed.
I raised my right hand and pressed two fingers directly over the Temporary Bond mark on my left wrist.
The pale blue wolf crest pulsed faintly beneath my skin.
"We have nothing left to talk about."
I met Caden's horrified eyes as he turned back around. Then, I dug my fingers in and pulled.
A searing, flesh-tearing agony ripped through my wrist.
Snap—
A sickening sound—one only bonded mates could hear—exploded in the air.
The mark shattered into specks of light and completely died out.
The magical backlash of the severed bond tore through my veins, slamming into my heart like a battering ram.
A metallic taste flooded my throat, and warm blood trickled down my chin.
I swallowed the remaining blood in my mouth. My voice was colder than the ice outside.
"The engagement is void."
"From this moment on, we are nothing to each other."
Caden froze, completely paralyzed.
He stared at the blood on my lips, then down at my bare left wrist. His pupils shook violently.
"Elara... are you insane?"
He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe that the fiancée who had yielded to him for seven years actually had the nerve to tear the bond apart with her own hands.
I didn't give him a second glance.
I turned to the wooden table, shoved the last pouch of blood-clotting herbs into my kit, and slung it over my shoulder.
"Take your people, and get the hell out of my cabin."