Scarlett convulsed on the floor, gasping. The sound gutted me worse than the bond break. But I didn’t move. Didn’t reach. My fingers twitched once, traitorous bastards, but I shoved them still. She’d see only the Alpha who was done. The one who’d signed the papers without a fight at the end. The one who was letting her go.
Make her the one who hurts more, I thought, the words bitter on my tongue. Make her the one who wakes up tomorrow wondering if she made the biggest mistake of her life.
The clerk pushed the final papers toward us. I took mine without looking down, folding them with mechanical precision. My wolf was still snarling, pacing, tail tucked in grief, even as he bared his teeth in defiance.
I shoved through the glass doors of the Council building and stepped straight into th
