Chapter 4 The Alpha's Agony

• ​Alpha Caine stood on the High Stone, his hand still clasped around Elena’s, but his mind was a chaotic storm of static.
• ​The ceremony was supposed to be a triumph. He had secured the bloodline of the former Alpha. He had purged the pack of its "weakest link." He had done what any strong leader would do.
• ​So why did it feel like his lungs were filling with lead?
• ​"Caine? Darling, the pack is waiting for your final blessing," Elena whispered, her voice like sandpaper against his raw nerves.
• ​Caine looked down at her. Elena was radiant in her white silk, her scent of lilies and expensive musk filling the air. But for the first time in his life, the scent made him want to gag.
• ​A sudden, sharp pain erupted in the center of his chest. It wasn't the dull ache of a broken bone; it felt like a hot iron was being driven through his heart and twisted.
• ​He gasped, his knees buckling for a split second. Elena’s hand slipped from his as he gripped the edge of the stone to steady himself.
• ​"Caine! What’s wrong?" Elena’s eyes widened in genuine alarm.
• ​"I'm... I'm fine," he growled, though his voice sounded foreign to his own ears.
• ​The pain intensified. It was the mate bond.
• ​When an Alpha rejects a mate, there is always a sting. A momentary discomfort as the Goddess’s gift is severed. But this... this was an amputation without anesthesia.
• ​He could feel Anna’s agony. He could feel her heartbeat slowing as she ran into the woods. And then, he felt the exact moment the bond was supposed to snap entirely.
• ​Except it didn't snap.
• ​The bond didn't wither away into a dead thread. It exploded.
• ​A wave of pure, golden energy hit Caine’s mind like a physical blow. He let out a strangled roar, falling to his knees as the Blood Moon above seemed to pulse in a rhythmic, blinding crimson.
• ​The pack fell silent. The celebrating wolves stopped their howling, their ears pricking toward the Forbidden Woods.
• ​"Alpha! Look!"
• ​Caine forced his eyes open, his vision swimming in a haze of red and gold.
• ​In the distance, deep within the Forbidden Woods—the place where he had sent Anna to die—a pillar of golden light erupted into the sky. It was so bright it turned the night into day, illuminating every leaf and stone for miles.
• ​It wasn't wolf magic. It was older. More ancient.
• ​"What is that?" Elena hissed, her face pale with a fear she couldn't hide. "Is it a rogue attack?"
• ​Caine didn't answer. He couldn't.
• ​His wolf, usually a disciplined soldier within his mind, was pacing frantically, clawing at the walls of his consciousness. "MISTAKE," the beast roared, a sound that made Caine’s head throb. "WE HAVE REJECTED THE SUN. WE HAVE REJECTED THE SOURCE."
• ​"Shut up!" Caine snarled internally, but the pain was becoming unbearable.
• ​Every time the golden light in the distance pulsed, Caine felt a corresponding burn in his skin. His fingers, the ones that had never touched Anna except to shove her away, were trembling.
• ​The golden light didn't just stay in the woods. It seemed to reach out, a psychic shockwave that swept through the Silver Moon pack. Warriors who had been laughing moments ago were now dropping to their knees, clutching their heads as a low, guttural vibration hummed through the very ground.
• ​"Alpha Caine!"
• ​Jax, Caine’s Beta and oldest friend, scrambled up the stone. His face was etched with confusion and a hint of terror.
• ​"The perimeter guards are reporting... they’re reporting impossible things, Caine," Jax panted.
• ​"Speak!" Caine commanded, his voice a jagged edge.
• ​"The rogues," Jax whispered. "They aren't attacking. The guards say the rogues are... they’re kneeling. Facing the center of the Forbidden Woods. They’re bowing to something."
• ​Caine’s heart stopped. Rogues didn't bow. Rogues were mindless killers, driven by hunger and madness. They bowed to no one.
• ​"And the light?" Caine asked, his eyes never leaving the golden glow that was now slowly fading into a soft, ethereal shimmer.
• ​"It came from the exact spot where we left her," Jax said, his voice dropping to a level only Caine could hear. "Caine... Anna was wolfless. She shouldn't have survived the rejection. But that light... it wasn't a death. It was an awakening."
• ​Caine felt a cold sweat break out across his brow. He remembered the look in Anna’s eyes as she ran—the betrayal, the heartbreak, but also the sudden, terrifying fire that had flared in her pupils right before she disappeared.
• ​He had called her a mistake. He had called her worthless.
• ​But as the mate bond in his chest continued to throb with a power he had never felt before, a terrifying thought began to take root in his mind.
• ​What if he was the one who had made the mistake?
• ​"Search the woods," Caine roared, the sound echoing through the valley and silencing the whispers of the pack. "I want a full battalion! Find her! Bring her back to me!"
• ​"But Caine," Elena protested, grabbing his arm. "She’s an exile! She’s a rogue now! You said—"
• ​Caine turned on her, his blue eyes flashing a dark, dangerous violet for a split second. The sheer force of his Alpha command made Elena flinch and recoil.
• ​"I don't care what I said!" Caine growled. "Find her! Now!"
• ​The warriors scrambled into motion, shifting into their wolves and disappearing into the tree line. But as Caine watched them go, he felt a sudden, hollow emptiness where the bond used to be.
• ​It was gone.
• ​The connection hadn't just changed; it had been blocked. It was as if a massive, obsidian wall had been slammed down between him and the girl he had just discarded.
• ​Caine looked at his hands, the hands that had scrubbed the floor he stood upon. He looked at the silver coin Elena had thrown at Anna’s feet.
• ​The triumph of the night was gone, replaced by a cold, biting dread.
• ​He didn't know that miles away, Anna was no longer the girl who cleaned his floors.
• ​He didn't know that she was currently being carried in the arms of a King who would sooner burn the world than let Caine ever touch her again.
• ​But Caine felt it. In the marrow of his bones, he felt the first stirrings of a regret that would eventually bring him to his knees.
• ​The "worthless" Omega was gone. And something much, much more dangerous was coming back in her place.