Chapter 45 Bond Severed Completely

• Raya’s POV
• I stood in the cold shadow of the storage shed, the scent of stale ale and Darius’s profound despair clinging to my senses. The brief confrontation in the inn had effectively neutralised his immediate pursuit, but the emotional residue of the mate bond—the lingering, chaotic pulse of his regret and possessiveness—persisted. It was a toxic tether, a psychological risk I could not carry into the complex infiltration ahead.
• Kaelen waited, his figure rigid and watchful. He did not speak, allowing the silence to press the weight of the decision onto me. He understood that the threat was not physical, but structural; the bond itself was the flaw I needed to excise.