Chapter 136 BLOOD AND SILENCE
DEREK'S POV
I got to the meeting place just before dawn, that alone told me this wasn’t meant to be fair.
The clearing sat deep in the forest, far from pack borders, far from help. The trees stood close together, their branches tangled like they were holding their breath. No birds and no insects. Just silence so tight it pressed against my ears.
Soul had chosen this place carefully. I stepped forward slowly, every sense stretched thin. My wolf paced inside me, restless, angry, afraid. The air smelled wrong…cold, sharp, touched by magic that didn’t belong to wolves.
Then I felt it, Amber.
It hit me like a fist to the chest. Her presence was there, faint but real, like a heartbeat I couldn’t quite hear. Panic rushed through me, fast and hot.
“Amber,” I said, my voice rough. “I’m here.”
A shape shifted in the shadows ahead. Dark smoke curled, then pulled itself together until Soul stood there like he had always been waiting. Calm and still, he was dressed in black like the night itself had shaped him.
He smiled a little, like this was all a game.
“You came alone,” he said.
“You said you wanted me,” I answered. “I’m here, let them go.”
His eyes flicked past me, amused. “Straight to demands, typical Alpha.”
My fists clenched. “Where are they?”
He lifted one hand, slow and deliberate.
The ground behind him split open like it was breathing. Dark chains rose first, dripping with thick shadow. Then I saw them.
Amber hung in the air, her wrists bound above her head by black magic. Her hair fell over her face, her body still, too still. Beside her were the children…small, pale, floating the same way. All three of them were unconscious.
My heart slammed so hard I thought it would tear out of my chest.
“No,” I whispered. “Please… no.”
Soul watched me carefully, like he was studying how much pain I could take before I broke.
“They’re alive,” he said calmly. “For now.”
I took a step forward, then another. “If you want me, take me. Let them go.”
He laughed softly. “You still think this is about you?”
I froze.
“I am Soul,” he continued. “Born of the Golden Moon Pack. Long before your line ever learned how to howl.”
The name hit like a spark to dry grass. Golden Moon, it made me remember old stories. A pack wiped out for practicing dark magic and a name spoken only in warnings.
“You’re lying,” I said.
“No,” he replied. “I am setting the board.”
He moved closer, not rushing, not threatening, he didn’t need to.
“This,” he said, spreading his hands toward Amber and the children, “is me declaring war.”
My wolf growled inside me, loud and furious, but trapped.
“What do you want?” I demanded.
Soul’s eyes locked onto mine.
“Reject Amber as your mate,” he said plainly.
The words didn’t make sense at first because I couldn’t help but think that all of this was a joke.
“Or,” he added calmly, “they die.”
The world tilted even as my lungs burned like I had forgotten how to breathe.
“That’s not possible,” I said. “You know it’s not.”
“I know exactly what it is,” he replied. “That bond ties you to her, it makes you weak.”
“I won’t do it,” I said instantly.
Soul’s smile faded.
“Careful,” he warned. “You’re running out of space to argue.”
I swallowed hard, forcing myself to think because that was the only thing that could save me at that moment, and the fact that everything seemed to be very confusing at that point.
“Let the children go,” I said. “They’re innocent, this is between you and me.”
“They are leverage,” he answered simply.
I stepped closer again. “We can make a deal, hostages for territory. Power and whatever you want.”
He tilted his head. “Stalling.”
My jaw tightened because this was not going in my favor and I hated it because he had the upper hand in this.
“Amber chose you,” he went on. “She made herself your weakness, now you choose.”
He lifted his hand again and a knife appeared in it and I recognized it to be Amber’s knife, the one she always kept close.
My blood ran cold just as one of the children floated closer to him. The smallest, her head lolled to the side, lips parted in sleep.
He pressed the blade lightly to her throat.
“Choose,” he said.
Time stopped as I couldn’t hear the forest anymore. Couldn’t hear my own heartbeat, all I saw was the edge of that blade against soft skin.
“Please,” I said, my voice breaking. “Please don’t.”
Soul’s eyes were empty, not angry but excited just enough to tell me that he had a lot of things planned out already.
“Reject her,” he said again.
I tried to move, but my legs felt locked. My wolf slammed against my chest, screaming, tearing, begging me to fight, to kill, to save them.
“Amber is my mate,” I said hoarsely. “You know what that means.”
“Yes,” he replied. “Which is why this works.”
I looked at Amber’s face. Bruised and very much scared, unaware that her whole world balanced on my next words.
If I refused, they died and if I agreed… I would kill her anyway.
“There has to be another way,” I said. “Take me and bind me, kill me if you want.”
“That would be mercy,” Soul said. “And I am not here to be kind.”
The knife pressed harder, a thin line of red appeared.
I choked on a sound I didn’t recognize as my own because at that moment, my emotions were too high up for me to say anything.
“I reject…” My voice failed.
The bond fought back just as pain ripped through my chest, sharp and wild. My wolf howled inside me, loud enough to split my skull. He clawed at the bond, refusing, tearing himself apart rather than let go.
Soul’s magic tightened around us, forcing the words out.
“Say it,” he ordered.
I sobbed, because this was just too painful for me to go through but here I was, living my worst nightmare.
“I reject Amber,” I whispered.
Nothing happened at first and then everything happened at once just as the bond snapped.
It felt like my spine shattered. Like fire poured through my veins as I creamed as something deep inside me tore loose, ripped away without care.
My wolf let out a sound of pure agony, a howl so loud it felt like it echoed inside my bones. Amber gasped in the air, her body jerking as the bond broke on her side too.
The pain dropped me to my knees as I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t think.
The world blurred as grief crashed into me, heavy and endless. The place where Amber had always been inside me was empty, cold and dead.
Soul lowered the knife, like this was the end game for him but I knew that he was more than finished based on how he looked at me.
“They live,” he said. “For now.”
I barely heard him just as my hands shook as I pressed them into the dirt, trying to stay upright. My chest burned. My heart felt wrong, like it didn’t know how to beat anymore.
I had saved them and lost everything, I hit the ground hard.
Not because Soul pushed me but because my body gave up.
The dirt was cold against my palms, damp with morning dew, and I clung to it like it was the only thing keeping me in this world. My chest felt hollow, like something vital had been carved out and left bleeding in the open. Every breath scraped and every heartbeat came late, confused and wrong even as my wolf was still howling and it was not out loud but screaming on the inside.
A sound of grief so deep it had no end. He circled the broken place where the bond used to be, pacing like a trapped animal, slamming into invisible walls. I felt him collapse, felt his rage turn inward, felt him curl around the pain because there was nowhere else to put it.
I lifted my head just as I saw Amber was awake now.
Her eyes were open, wide and unfocused at first, then they found me. The second they did, her face changed. Confusion shattered into understanding so fast it made my stomach twist, she felt it, the bond was gone for her too and in that moment there was nothing any of us could do because Soul had the upper hand in this and fighting him would only make matters worse in a way that we would never be able to recover from it.
“I’m sorry.” I muttered.
The last thing I saw before darkness closed in was Amber’s eyes opening, filled with confusion an
d pain and me on my knees, broken, unable to reach her.
SHATTERED AND BURNING