THE ALPHA'S FORBIDDEN MATE

had scraped the last

on with the forest, until the chill of the earth seeped through

o the bed of furs, each movement a stu

ntaining a mash of roots and dried berries, steam curling gently in the

most ritualistic focus. I ate. It was tasteless, but warmth spread through my cor

ly through the hide. "I had to see," I replied, my voice still a rasp, but stronger. "Seeing is necessa

a needle of their own, pricking the tender space of that loss. I flinched. He finally looke

lost, but not how to be found. We will start with the clear signals." He stood and walked to a shelf

ow," he said, placing the staff against the wall near me and setting the stone on the

you will hold this stone. You will feel its weight. Its temperature.

achieve?" I couldn't keep the hint of bitterness from my voice. "It ach

s in the void, with your loss. Your body is here, dying

y the hearth. The silence that followed wasn't empty. It was filled with the cra

didn't feel like it was expanding to consume the world. It was just... a space. A terrible, quiet space within

en another. The journey to the stream, a distance I could have crossed in a dozen healthy strides,

kled. By the time I lowered myself onto the sun-warmed stone by the water, my entire body

, his eyes closed, face turned to the sun. I picked up the river stone from where

t. It was just a rock. I listened to the water. It babbled.

was in ruins. "Your breathing is shallow," Kael observed, his eyes still closed. "The stone did not cause that. Your thoughts did. Feel the stone. Not wha

ask. It was a stone. Over minutes, my frantic breathing began to slow, to m

d, the hollow space inside seemed to... echo. But

d trousers against my skin. Of the way the sunlight held mo

, but the rustle of a thousand leaves, the distant drill of a woodpeck

a grey, muffled thing. Now, with the simple anchor of the stone pulling me into the pr

w but of sheer, overwhelming sensation, trace

eyes taking in the fractal pattern of a fern as if I'd never se

moon-and mutes others. Now the filter is gone. The world will come at

A wolf would have known if another predator was near long

blind to everything but the physical. "I feel blind," I whispe

tes in a sunbeam with a clarity an adult has forgotten." He

f was no longer just a tool, but a point of contact, a

. That afternoon, as I rested, Kael began the true wo

illed me with a cold dread. "It is a wound. But it is not sterile. It is

t," he said, his voice low and steady, a drum to march the pain out to. "Not the before. Not the after. The

ng. I took a shuddering breath. "It wasn't... physical. Not at first. She lu

r my heart." My voice began to shake. "She turned her w

ween us. Into the bond itself." I closed my eye

of me. It was the sound of a universe ripping in two. And then... a pulling. A terribl

away from me. I felt her terror

ouder than the scream." Tears streamed down my face now, fast and hot

e been falling ever since." I opened my eyes, expecting to see pity. I saw only deep, focused under

d forward slightly, "you must do the hardest thing. You

ention inward, not to chase the ghost of my wolf, but to feel the edges of the wound.

d, shimmering with a faint, residual energy that was not my own. It was cold. Metal

xpression turned grimly satisfied. "The poison. The i

e a splinter in your soul, ensuring the wound cannot close naturally." A new kind of anger, cold and cl

he said, with brutal honesty. "I have never seen a hollowing so...

nature is the first step. You are not just grieving a loss. Yo

elt the cold, sharp edges of the splinter within it. It was a terrible discov

against Vivian. It was against the lingering echo of her blade lodged in my spirit. And f