His voice. I heard Draven’s voice over the chaos.
“Alpha Draven, it’s not safe!” the housekeeper cried.
“Move!” he roared.
Footsteps thundered. Then I saw him, silhouetted against smoke and fire. He looked around, eyes frantic. He found Freya first, curled in a corner, sobbing.
She reached for him. “Draven! I’m scared!”
Without hesitation, he picked her up and turned to leave.
His gaze fell on me, sprawled and broken, glass glinting beneath my fingers.
Our eyes locked.
For a moment, I saw the man I once loved—the Alpha I once trusted.
But then he turned.
And left me.
The fire devoured everything.
The quake stopped, but the damage had already been done.
They searched the ashes. No one found me. No scent trail, no body.
Because I was already gone.
--
At the airport, I mailed off the last of my papers—my inheritance, the sealed documents, and something else… a blood-marked piece of fur that had once belonged to me and Draven.
A final rejection of the bond.
As I waited to board my flight under a new name, my phone vibrated.
It was Draven.
I pulled out the SIM card. Crushed it beneath my boot heel. Tossed it in the nearest trash.
The mate bond is now severed.