“No way! That’s not her!”
+25 Bonus
Scott slammed his fist down, shattering the glass table in front of him. Blood dripped from his knuckles, but he didn’t even notice.
“Alpha, the police have confirmed it,” Beta Luke reported cautiously. “Elena’s name was on that bus manifest. All the passengers…”
“Shut up!” Scott roared, his golden eyes flashing dangerously. “Get the car ready, now!”
Thirty minutes later, Scott stood at the edge of a cliff, looking down at the charred wreckage of the bus. The search and rescue team was still at work; a few burned bodies had already been brought out.
“A real tragedy,” a human police officer said, shaking his head. “Guess we’ll need DNA for IDs.”
Scott sniffed the air, trying to catch any trace of Elena. But all he could smell was gasoline, burnt flesh, and death.
“She’s not here,” he muttered. “It can’t be her…”
But then, a rescuer pulled something from the wreckage–a half–burned necklace with a moonstone pendant.
Scott’s heart stopped. It was the one he’d reluctantly given Elena at the Moon Hunt Festival. Part of the marking ritual.
“No…” He sank to his knees.
Back in the pack territory, Scott moved like a ghost through the main gate. Everyone avoided his eyes. No one dared go near the Alpha; his grief and rage were like a physical darkness, making the air heavy, suffocating.
He pushed open the door to his home, and his father’s fist met him.
Scott stumbled back, blood trickling from the torner of his mouth.
“You fool!” the former Alpha roared. “For an outsider, you nearly got your own mate killed! And now you’ve let her die out there!”
“She wasn’t an outsider,” Scott snarled. “She’s my mate.”
“Oh? You realize that now?” his father sneered. “Yesterday you couldn’t wait to sever your bond with her!”
Scott lunged, and he and his father crashed together. Furniture toppled, glass shattered, and the roars of two Alphas shook the whole house.
“Enough!” The Luna’s sharp command cut through the air, and an unseen force pulled them apart.
Scott gasped for breath, blood dripping from his forehead. “Tell me, what did you do to her? Why did she leave?”
“She came to say goodbye,” his mother’s voice was suddenly quiet.
“What?”
“When she came to see us, she said she was leaving for good,” the Luna sighed. “She… she told us about a prophecy.”
Scott froze. “What prophecy?”
“That if you stayed together, in ten years, you would die saving her,” his father cut in, the anger in his eyes slowly fading. “She described it in such detail… a silver–laced bomb from the Bloodfang pack… your insides… blown apart.”
Scott’s face went white. He remembered what he’d said to Elena: “If you really want to please me, just disappear from my world.”
“And this,” his mother said, holding out a scroll. “The ‘bond–severing ritual‘ she left.”
Scott unrolled the scroll, his shock deepening. It wasn’t a bond–severing ritual. It was an “Alliance Blessing“-an ancient magic that let an Alpha, even without a mate, forge a strong political alliance with another pack.
Elena was paving the way for him. Even as she was leaving, she still wanted to make sure he and Joanna’s family could form a solid alliance.
“Why would she…?” His voice cracked.
“Maybe you should ask the Shaman,” his mother said quietly. “He seems to know more.”
Scott raced to the Shaman’s hut. When he burst through the door, the old Shaman was gazing out the window at the moon, as if he’d been expecting him.
