My Mate Broke Our Bond, So the Northern Alpha Claimed Me novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Eclipse

Under the new moon Sorcha breaks the bond and her aura breaks loose. The gates blast open and the Alpha of Blackmere walks in to claim her.

The new moon rose over the courtyard, and every wolf in Pack Ironwood stood in the dark to watch her be cut loose.

Sorcha walked to the center of the old stone ring in a plain white gown.

The fever had left her hollow, and she held her back straight anyway.

Corbin waited on the other side of the ceremonial bowl.

His eyes were red, and he looked at her, begging to be forgiven.

She did not give him that.

The Alpha stood between them with a silver bowl in both hands.

Inside it burned a small blue flame, the Embers of Severance.

"We are here to witness the breaking of a thread," he called, and his voice carried to the back of the crowd. "A bond made by fate and unmade by choice. May the Goddess give peace to what is torn."

He stepped back.

Her father stood in the front row with her mother's hand locked in his.

Brianna was not there. Sorcha had not expected her to be, and it still hurt.

"Sorcha," Corbin said, very low. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Say the words."

"I never wanted it to end like this."

"You did, though. You wanted it every night for a year. Say the words, Corbin."

His jaw worked.

Sorcha stepped forward until the blue flame lit the underside of her chin.

"I, Sorcha Ashdown, reject you, Corbin Ridley," she said, clear and steady, so the back row could hear. "I return your promises to the wind. I cut the tether between our souls."

She pushed her hand into the bowl.

The fire did not burn her. It wound up her forearm in cold spirals of light.

She pressed her glowing hand over her heart.

On the other side of the flames Corbin gasped and folded forward as the tether snapped on his end too.

"I, Corbin Ridley," he choked, "reject you, Sorcha Ashdown. I release you."

The blue fire flared white.

Pain tore across her collarbone, where the mate mark had been glowing for three weeks.

She threw her head back and screamed without making a sound.

When it ended, a crescent moon was cut into her skin, pale and permanent.

The mark of a severed wolf.

The courtyard went silent.

Then the power came.

It rose out of her chest with nothing left to hold it down. The wind howled through the stone ring and whipped her hair across her face.

A flood of silver light spilled out of her eyes and fell across the crowd.

The warriors in the front row went down on their knees, one after another, whether they wanted to or not.

Sorcha staggered, and she felt the magic of the whole pack turn toward her. The wards. The roots under the ground. Every wolf's heartbeat, close as her own.

So that was what Margaret had meant.

Corbin was on the stones with his hands over his face.

The Alpha was the only one still on his feet, and his knuckles were white around the bowl.

"Control it, girl," he said hoarsely. "You'll bring the walls down."

"I don't know how."

"Then you should have stayed where we could teach you."

Sorcha heard a crash, far off, of a heavy door splintering.

Then another.

The wind stopped, all at once.

The courtyard gates burst inward, and the iron bar spun across the cobblestones and hit the wall.

Footsteps rang on the stone.

A man walked in with four warriors in black cloaks fanned out behind him.

He was taller than any wolf in Ironwood, broad through the shoulders, with dark hair cut short and a black glove on his left hand.

His eyes were black, and they did not leave the glow on Sorcha's skin.

At the gate, one of his warriors had passed him a small flask.

He drank it in a single swallow without breaking stride, and handed it back.

The Alpha of Ironwood stepped in front of the bowl.

"Blackmere has no business at an Eclipse," he said. "You were never invited."

"Alpha Greaves," someone whispered in the crowd. "Brogan Greaves. The Black Alpha."

The pack that had knelt for Sorcha scrambled back.

Sorcha felt her own wolf rise to the stranger's, and it did not lower its head.

He walked straight through the stone ring and past the Alpha without a glance.

He did not look at Corbin on the ground.

He did not look at the crowd.

He stopped less than an arm's length from her, and the weight of his presence made the air thick.

Up close she could see a pulse jumping in his jaw and sweat at his hairline, in the cold.

His gaze dropped to the new crescent on her collarbone.

The hard line of his mouth softened, and his eyes went from black to a deep, burning gold.

"The bond is broken," he said. His voice was low and rough. "I waited at your gate until it was."

He lifted one gloved finger and tilted her chin up to meet his eyes.

"It is time to go home, my Luna."

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