Better Let Go My Mate

ed back to his senses, he slapped a bond-brea

and let Sophia Ellsworth take her rightful place

ertips trembling. "Take her pla

st. "You've been sitting in a spot that was alway

earing me apart. Just a few days ago, he couldn't get enough of me. At night, he'd cling to me, refusing to s

ked through me lik

imple pup, the one who only had eyes for me.

nce was wearing thin, his brow furrowing.

phia and I were always meant to be bound, destined from birth. You need to

most laughed at the irony. Me, chasing thi

ouldn't let me out of his sight, who

in my chest down. When I opened my eye

I said slowly,

as his lesser mate, cut me off before I could

y, his broad shoulders straight as a

pear, then whispered, "I

nd memories flooded

t his eyes were only for Sophia, his childhood mate. He doted on her. She loved peonies, so he filled the Hawthorne den with the rarest blooms. She hated the cold, so h

the battlefield that turned our brilliant young w

irit and healer, desperate for a cure. Finally, wor

ond and ran. Every high-born she-wolf who'd on

daughter. I was the one who knoc

m the bond

yself to bury him, but the Hawthornes gave me silver without

o feast, no guests. Just a small sedan chair carrie

dn't

ed him, read to him, taught him to write. He grew to lean on me, curl

hat he saw, not really, but he clung to me anyway, his voice low and r

, he couldn't get enough, always pulling me close, whispering he wanted to fe

live like that forev

-but he didn't know me. He didn't remember Sophia abandoning him. All he knew was he

intruder, while the pack stayed silent. The healers warned he couldn't ha

ce. These past years? Just a dream. A hunter's daug

ta heir he is now? I'm not

e on the bond-breaking letter, pressing my thumbprint

eaks a bond, she must roll the nail bed as punishment. It's three yards long,

s why Theodore was so su

needed me, who loved me-he's

e punishment,"

she-wolves pass out

tting him off. "I wa

uldn't budge. "Fine. Ten days fro

ready decked out in celebration-lanterns glowing

dore was a pup then, so I came through the side gate in a plain sedan c

over the moon just

olf he loves, dressed in the finest silks, thr

nd it trashed-my clothes, my jewelry,

apped, rushing to block the

you're stepping down as his mate, you're moving to

king, their whispers c

own the willows in the back t

s the ones he and Lill

now. Sophia's the future

r. He was a pup then, giggling as he dragged me outside, saying, "Sis,

ed, my hea

tearing i

a cramped, damp storeroom, no proper bed, just a hard wooden board. I

ys, and I'll be f

ever lo