Wrenna Voss's POV
"Sela can cut away the rotting flesh," Cassian said, his rough fingertips dropping from my bandaged neck. He took a measured step backward, putting cold air between us. "But she cannot heal a severed soul."
I rubbed the coarse linen at my throat. The heat of his touch lingered on my skin, sharp and entirely unexpected.
"I do not feel a soul tie," I told him, keeping my voice steady. "I do not even remember a face."
"A mate bond does not care about your memory," Cassian stated. He crossed his arms, his massive frame blocking the only exit to the war room. "It anchors deep in the marrow. Only death breaks an Alpha-level claim. If the male who bit you is still breathing, that bond is still pulling on your life force."
"Then how do I sever it?" I demanded.
"You ask the Moon Goddess." Cassian tilted his head toward the frosted window. "Tonight is the festival. The pack gathers at the Moon Stone in one hour. If your old bond survived your fall into the river, the stone will force it to answer."
"And if it did not survive?"
"Then you are a free wolf." Cassian turned the heavy iron doorknob. "Be at the courtyard."
One hour later, the rhythmic pounding of hide drums vibrated through the thick soles of my boots.
I walked through the center of the Silvermoon compound. Hundreds of wolves crowded the dirt square, their faces painted with silver ash. They parted silently as I approached. Three months ago, I was a nameless liability bleeding out on a cot. Today, I was the strategist who broke the northern siege. They respected the blood I saved.
A massive slab of jagged white quartz dominated the center of the courtyard. The Moon Stone.
Cassian stood waiting at the base of the rock. He had stripped off his heavy wool coat, wearing only a dark tunic that stretched tight across his chest. The flickering torches cast sharp angles across his jaw.
"Put your hand against the surface," Cassian ordered as I stopped beside him. "Do not pull away, no matter how much it burns."
I stepped up to the quartz. The stone hummed, emitting a faint, high-frequency vibration that rattled my teeth.
"Are you afraid?" Cassian asked, his voice dropping low enough that only I could hear.
"I am tired of carrying a ghost on my neck," I answered.
I slammed my bare palm flat against the jagged quartz.
A violent jolt of static electricity shot up my arm, sinking directly into my chest. I braced my knees, waiting for the agony. I waited for the phantom pull of a forgotten mate to rip my mind apart. I waited for the jagged scar on my neck to split open and bleed.
Nothing happened.
The static faded into a dull, comforting warmth. The thick scar tissue beneath my bandage remained entirely numb. No pull. No agonizing tether dragging me back to a life I could not remember.
I dropped my hand from the rock.
"It is gone," I whispered, staring at my empty palm.
Cassian moved closer. "You are certain?"
"The bond broke." I turned to face him, my pulse steadying. "When I fell off that cliff into the gorge, my heart must have stopped. The bond registered my death. It severed completely."
I looked up into Cassian's steel eyes.
For twelve weeks, I had analyzed this man across a sand table. I knew exactly how he deployed his scouts. I knew the precise angle of his shoulders when he prepared to order a strike. Now, standing inches from him in the torchlight, I realized something else entirely.
The old life was dead.
But my heart hammered against my ribs, loud and frantic, beating for the Alpha standing right in front of me.
"You are free," Cassian murmured, his gaze dropping to my lips before snapping back to my eyes.
"I am," I agreed, taking a half-step toward him.
The white quartz behind me erupted.
A blinding flash of silver light swallowed the courtyard. The pack gasped in unison, stumbling backward to shield their eyes.
Before I could turn around, a searing, white-hot agony exploded at the base of my skull.
I screamed, my knees buckling instantly.
Cassian caught me before I hit the dirt. His massive hands gripped my waist, hauling me up against his chest.
"Wrenna!" he shouted over the sudden roaring wind.
"My neck!" I gasped, clawing blindly at the linen bandage. "It burns!"
The heat did not feel like rotting flesh. It felt like liquid fire pouring directly into my veins, rewriting my DNA. The thick linen wrapped around my throat incinerated in a flash of silver sparks, leaving my bare skin exposed to the freezing air.
Cassian stared at the back of my neck, his pupils blown wide.
He released my waist and dropped heavily to one knee in the dirt right behind me.
"The Moon Goddess," Cassian said, his voice completely tight, rough with a fierce, undeniable awe. "She forged a new one between us."
I reached up with a trembling hand and pressed my fingertips against the burning skin of my neck.
The jagged, ruined scar of my past was gone, replaced entirely by the raised, scorching shape of a perfect silver crescent moon.
