Dominic
I am sitting on my throne with a drink in hand when Heitor, my beta, hurries in, pushing open the doors to the hall that now stands empty and lonely after dinner. His footsteps echo through the silence.
"Alpha," he says with a brief bow, head lowered in respect. "I have news about the she-wolf Aurora, if you wish to hear it."
A dry, disbelieving laugh leaves me. The drink burns my throat when I lift the goblet to my lips again.
"She-wolf? If there is one thing that girl isn't, it's a wolf."
I roll my eyes, but my whole body is tense.
"Fine, then. Tell me. What happened? Did that useless thing fall in the rain and die?"
There is hope in my voice. Hope that everything might disappear that way. That she might disappear.
Heitor clears his throat, nervous.
"Worse than that, sir. She was seen entering the forbidden forest."
I straighten on the throne. My body moves before my mind gives it permission. The drink darkens inside the goblet.
"The forbidden forest? Are you certain, Heitor?"
My voice comes out sharper than I intended. He nods, taking a step forward.
"Yes, Alpha. Pack wolves saw her go in there. Alone. In the rain. And you know who rules those wild lands, don't you? The one many don't even dare to name."
Kael.
The name rises in my mind like a specter.
I stand from the throne, adjusting my clothes with abrupt movements. I walk to one of the tall windows overlooking the garden. To the rain still falling through the darkness outside.
"That idiot will die in there," I say, but my voice sounds strange. Forced. "Leave her. I have nothing to do with her anymore."
I place my hand against the cold glass. It is icy.
"For all I care, he can kill her. He'd be doing me a favor."
The words leave my mouth like stones. Heavy. False.
Because the truth?
The truth is that I feel something in my chest now. An emptiness. A pain that should not be here. But it is. Because she should not matter.
And that enrages me.
(...)
It is deep into the night when a damned bolt of lightning wakes me. I sit up sharply in bed, my whole body going on alert.
"Aurora!" Her name bursts from me automatically.
It escapes my mouth before I can stop it.
I swallow hard and look at Samanta, sleeping carelessly beside me, covered by darkness and the sheet. She turns in bed, mumbling something I cannot make out, as if she heard nothing. As if nothing matters.
I get up and walk to the window. I stop beside it and watch the dark night outside flash white beneath the storm. The sky seems to be celebrating, a furious, savage celebration.
The rain will not stop falling. Hard. Torrential. As if the universe itself is convulsing.
My chest rises and falls frantically.
"You idiot... you must be dead by now," I whisper into the dark bedroom, where only lightning illuminates my silhouette. But the words do not sound true.
I strike the window with my fist.
"Damn it! What is happening to me?" I say, pressing my other hand to my chest.
Because it hurts. It hurts badly. As if something inside me is being torn out piece by piece.
"That wretched girl... what did she do to me?"
I feel dazed. My breath will not come right.
"The bond was cut," I whisper to myself, trying to convince my own body of a truth it refuses to accept. "I shouldn't be affected. So why am I? What the hell?"
My voice comes out in a furious hiss.
At that moment, I watch lightning strike farther ahead on my property. It is so close, so violent, that it shorts out the wiring. The bulbs inside the room burst even though they are off, glass shattering across the floor like inverted rain.
"AHHHHHH! WHAT WAS THAT?" Samanta screams in panic, sitting up abruptly in bed, eyes wide.
But I do not answer. I only stand there, motionless before the window, while the storm keeps roaring outside.
And I feel, with absolute certainty, that something has changed.
Aurora is not dead.
And I am losing control of something even I do not understand.
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