Chapter 45 CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Chapter 45 CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Hellen’s POV

The pain came in waves. Slow, deliberate, like something alive beneath my skin.
When I opened my eyes, the room swam in faint gold light, candles nearly burned to stubs, their wax pooled like spilled tears across the stone floor. I blinked hard, pushing through the blur. The ache wasn’t from my body alone… it was deeper, a throb in the place where Matt’s mark should have been burning bright.

It wasn’t supposed to hurt anymore.

I pressed trembling fingers against my neck. The skin there was cool, too cool, and smooth. The mark had faded to a ghost of its former self, pale and dull as dying moonlight. Yet beneath the surface, I could feel something crawling, twisting, like a shadow trying to dig its way into me.

My breath quickened. “No,” I whispered. “No, no…”

The Healer said the bond wound had sealed. That my connection to Matt was steady again, but she lied, or worse, she did something to it.

I pushed off the bed, my legs unsteady. The healing chamber was silent except for the soft crackle of fire from the brazier. But the air felt wrong. Thicker. Heavy. As if the walls themselves were listening. My reflection glinted faintly in the mirror across the room, and what I saw made my stomach drop.

Silver veins, faint but visible, threaded beneath the skin around my throat, spreading from the base of my neck toward my collarbone. They pulsed faintly in rhythm with my heartbeat.

“Moon above…” I breathed.

That wasn’t normal. That wasn’t natural. It was dark magic forbidden and rare, the kind used to interfere with a bond.

I staggered back. The truth was sharp and cruel: someone had tampered with the mate bond between me and Matt. Someone wanted me disconnected from him.

The door creaked open before I could think.

“Luna,” came that familiar, deceptively gentle voice.

The HeHealertepped in, robed in pale blue, her hands folded like she carried serenity in her palms. But I wasn’t fooled anymore. The moment her scent hit me, wolfsbane and faint lavender, I knew the peace she had was poison wrapped in silk.

“Resting, I hope?” she asked, her tone as smooth as honey.

I said nothing. My gaze dropped to the pendant around her neck, one I hadn’t seen before. Silver, circular, etched with a serpent curling around a rose.

Laura’s family crest.

A wave of anger burned through my chest so fast I almost shook.

“That’s new,” I said quietly, forcing calm.

She blinked innocently, fingers brushing the pendant. “A gift, Luna. From Lady Laura. For my service.”

“Service,” I repeated slowly. “And what kind of service earns a healer jewelry from the Alpha’s guest?”

The HeHealer smiled, thin and unbothered. “Healing loyalty, of course.”

I took a step closer, every nerve awake. “Or manipulation.”

Her eyes flickered. “You’re tired. Still recovering. The mind can...”

“Don’t,” I cut in, my voice low but steady. “Don’t talk to me like I’m delirious. I know what you’ve done.”

For a heartbeat, her smile slipped a flicker of something sharp glinting behind her calm mask. But she recovered quickly.

“I’ve done nothing but serve this pack,” she said softly. “You’re still alive because of me.”

“Alive,” I whispered, “but barely bonded.”

Her lips parted, but before she could speak, the door opened again.

Matt stepped in.

The air shifted immediately. Power, raw and commanding, filled the space, his scent washing over me like a rush of pine and storm. But his eyes softened the moment they met mine.

“Love,” he said quietly, striding over. “You should be resting.”

My throat tightened. His concern always came so naturally… yet there was a faint dimness in his eyes, like a light faltering under shadow.

The HeHealerowed. “Alpha. I was just checking her progress.”

Matt nodded, running his thumb over my wrist. “She’s stronger every day, thanks to you.”

The Healer smiled, bowing again, and my heart ached at how easily she deceived him.

As she turned to leave, her scent brushed past me again beneath the lavender, a metallic tang. Wolfsbane, mixed with something else. Something darker.

She paused by the door, meeting my gaze for the briefest moment, and smiled. Not kindly. Not in service. But in triumph.

When she was gone, I realized my nails had dug into my palm so hard they drew blood.

Matt frowned. “Hellen? You’re trembling.”

I shook my head, trying to steady my breath. “It’s nothing. I just… had a strange dream.”

He brushed a thumb against my cheek. “You don’t have to lie to me.”

I met his gaze and, for a flicker of a second, felt the bond pulse weakly between us. Then it faltered, flickering out like a dying ember. I wanted to cry, but I forced a smile instead.

“I’m fine, Matt.”

He studied me for a long moment, then nodded, though I could tell he didn’t fully believe it. “Get some rest. I’ll handle the rest of today’s council meeting and return soon.”

He kissed my forehead and left.

The moment the door closed, I exhaled shakily. The silence pressed around me again, heavy and suffocating. My heart pounded against my ribs, the Healer’s smirk burning into my thoughts.

She was part of Laura’s plan. And somehow, she’d already begun it.

Hours later, I couldn’t stay still. The moon hung high when I stepped outside, the courtyard bathed in silver light. The cold air bit against my skin, but it cleared my mind.

The connection with Matt was thinning. I could feel that invisible tether between us fraying strand by strand. His emotions, once vibrant through the bond, were faint now, muffled like a whisper behind glass.

I remembered the prophecy the Elder once told me: “The bond can be severed not by death, but by deceit.”

Back then, I hadn’t understood. Now, I did.

This wasn’t about killing me. It was about erasing me, tearing me out of Matt’s soul, piece by piece, until he wouldn’t even remember what loving me felt like.

I swallowed hard, gazing up at the moon. My reflection shimmered faintly in the courtyard’s shallow pool. The silver veins at my throat gleamed brighter now, pulsing with quiet defiance.

“You won’t take him from me,” I whispered.

A wind stirred softly at first, then rose with an eerie whisper. My name drifted through it, faint but unmistakable.

Hellen.

My breath caught.

That wasn’t Matt’s voice. It was colder. Older. Echoing from the shadows.

I turned sharply. The courtyard seemed empty… until a faint red glow caught my eye at the far corner near the stone steps leading to the temple grounds.

I moved closer, heart hammering.

There, etched faintly into the stone, was a symbol glowing like liquid fire, a circle of runes woven into the shape of a claw and rose.

The Mark of Betrayal.

My stomach turned. It was an ancient rune forbidden, outlawed by every council for centuries. A ritual mark that could sever a bond and replace it with loyalty to another.

A mark used only by those who dared to steal what was never theirs.

The glow pulsed once, then faded, leaving only the smell of burnt metal.

I fell to my knees, staring at the space. My fingers brushed the warm stone, trembling. Whoever did this was already setting the ritual in motion.

My bond with Matt wasn’t dying on its own; it was being ripped apart.

For a moment, fear clawed up my throat. But it didn’t win. The fear twisted, hardened, turned to something hotter. Anger. Resolve.

They thought I’d remain weak. Helpless. Controlled.

They forgot who I was, the Luna chosen by fate, forged by pain, loved by an Alpha no darkness could honestly claim.

I stood, my pulse syncing with the moonlight.

“If they want to destroy our bond,” I whispered, voice trembling with rage and fire, “then they’ll have to face the Luna they once thought weak.”

The wind howled around me, carrying my words into the night.

And somewhere in the distance, as if answering my defiance, a wolf howled deep and mournful, Matt’s voice.

But faint. So faint.

The bond flickered again.

And this time, it hurt.