Ex-Alpha's Regret: Siren's Comeback novel Chapter 67

POV: Seraphina

Days bled into one another in my silent, gray prison. I ate what Elara brought me, I slept when exhaustion claimed me, and I spent the long hours in between listening. Not just with my ears, but with my soul. I was listening to the constant, low thrum of the bond that connected me to Damian. It felt like a disease, a faint, spiritual sickness deep within me.

It was no longer a source of pain or a reminder of lost love. It was a chain. A leash. Even now, with my wolf awake and my heart a shard of ice, the bond remained. It was a faint, spiritual tether, but it was enough. As long as it existed, he could sense me. Not my thoughts, not my location precisely, but my presence, a faint echo in the back of his mind. If I fled, he could use that echo to track me, a supernatural compass pointing him in my direction, a homing beacon I couldn't shut off.

I could never be truly free. My people, my family, could never truly vanish and rebuild if he could always hunt me down. The thought of him using that intimate connection, the one I had once cherished, as a tool to drag me back to this hell was unbearable.

The chain had to be broken. The mark had to be purged.

It was a terrifying thought. The severing ritual was an ancient, brutal magic, one that was whispered about in horrified tones. It was said to be an agony beyond comprehension, a spiritual self-mutilation that could leave the wolf permanently scarred, or even dead. It was a desperate act, a last resort for the truly damned.

I sent the message and handed the phone back to Elara. She looked at me, her eyes wide with a mixture of terror and awe at the words she had read. "Luna… the ritual… they say no one has survived it in a century."

"They haven't met me," I said, my voice a quiet, chilling whisper that was not entirely my own.

I turned back to the window, feeling the faint, hateful thrum of the bond deep within me. It felt like a parasite, and I was going to cut it out.