My Mate Broke Our Bond, So the Northern Alpha Claimed Me novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Bond-Fever

Burning with fever, Sorcha learns from Luna Margaret that she is a Graced wolf the pack has hidden for years to feed its wards. She refuses to stay, and the Alpha closes every border to her.

By midnight the fever had Sorcha shaking in her childhood bed.

Her mother pressed a wet cloth to her forehead, and it was warm again before she could lift her hand.

The healer checked her pulse and shook his head.

"Bond-fever," he said. "The soul keeps reaching for a tether that is gone. Herbs will slow it, but only the Eclipse Ritual will end it."

"Then we do the ritual now," her father said.

"Not before the new moon, Tomas. The old magic will not answer."

The cottage door opened without a knock, and the Alpha walked in.

He sent the healer out with a nod and stood at the foot of the bed.

Sorcha tried to sit up, and the room tilted.

"Stay down," the Alpha said, and for once his voice was almost gentle. "I came to tell you what happens after tomorrow."

"I know what happens," Sorcha said through her teeth. "I wear the mark."

"You also lose your place. A severed wolf cannot stay in the pack that cast the bond. Our magic will start to push you out."

"It already has."

"Then you understand." He folded his hands behind his back. "I have written to allies in the far south. A pack that values strength over tradition. You will go in the spring, with a warrior's escort, and nobody here will whisper behind your back."

Her father took a step toward him.

"You are sending my daughter away so your son's shame is out of sight."

"I am saving her from watching my son raise a family with her friend."

"You are saving yourself the sight of her," her mother said.

The Alpha did not answer that.

He looked at Sorcha one more time, and she saw him sniff the air and go still.

Then he left.

Her parents sat with her until her breathing slowed and her father's head dropped against the wall.

Then the window latch clicked.

Luna Margaret slipped in from the garden with her hood up and a lantern in her hand.

Sorcha pushed herself against the headboard.

"Get out."

"Five minutes," Margaret said. "Then I will go, and you will never hear me ask for anything again."

She set the lantern on the table and sat on the edge of the bed. She did not touch Sorcha.

"You are Graced," she said.

Sorcha stared at her.

"The Goddess marks one wolf in a generation. A Graced wolf can hold the magic of a whole pack in her hands. You were born with it."

"I'm a warrior's daughter."

"You are the reason Ironwood's wards have never failed in your lifetime." Margaret's voice shook. "The Alpha and I saw the silver in your eyes when you were fourteen, in the first fever of your wolf."

"Fourteen," Sorcha said.

"We could not lose you to another pack. So the Alpha made the match with Corbin. Fated mates tie a Graced wolf to a pack for good."

The room was very quiet.

Sorcha remembered the first time Margaret had put a hand on her shoulder and said, "I will teach you everything, child."

She remembered seven years of dawn lessons in how to stand, how to listen, how to give.

"You trained me," she said slowly. "You trained a Luna so my power would never leave."

"I trained you because I loved you, too. Both are true."

"Does your son know?"

"No. Nobody told him. The affair was not our doing, Sorcha. That part was only his weakness." Margaret closed her eyes. "But if you cut that bond, the wards lose their anchor. They will not last the winter."

"That sounds like Ironwood's problem."

"There are two hundred children in this pack."

"I was supposed to be your Luna," Sorcha said. "I thought somebody here loved me."

Margaret opened her eyes, and they were wet.

"I am asking you for a season. Stay as Luna in name. Brianna's pup will be raised in the nursery, and Corbin will keep his place. You keep your rooms, your title and your power. I will make the Alpha swear it."

"You want me to stand next to them at the pack festival."

"I want your pack to live."

"It stopped being my pack tonight," Sorcha said. "I am cutting the bond tomorrow, and I am taking my silver with me."

Margaret stood.

Her hands were trembling, but when she spoke her voice was flat.

"Then I will tell you the one thing I came here for. The Alpha knew you would refuse. He sent riders at sundown to every border, to every Alpha within three hundred miles."

"What did they carry?"

"A decree," Margaret said. "Any Alpha who offers to claim Sorcha Ashdown will be answered with the full war of Pack Ironwood."

She picked up the lantern.

"After tomorrow night you will be a severed wolf with no pack, no mate, no border that opens and no one who dares ask for you."

She went out through the window the way she had come.

Sorcha lay in the dark, burning, and listened to her father's slow breathing and the wind pushing at the shutters.

Then, from very far to the north, so faint she thought the fever had made it up, a single howl answered her.

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend