Coleton POV:
The bass of the music in the VIP club thumped against my chest, syncing with my heartbeat. The entire Blood Moon Pack was here, drinking, dancing, celebrating me.
I sat on the velvet throne in the center of the room, a glass of whiskey in my hand. Charly was on my lap, running her fingers through my hair.
"Happy birthday, Alpha," she purred, pressing a kiss to my jaw.
She handed me a small box. "Open it."
It was a pair of gold cufflinks, engraved with the pack crest.
"They're beautiful," I said, forcing a smile.
But I felt... wrong.
My wolf was pacing inside my mind. He had been agitated all day, scratching at the back of my skull. Mate. Where is Mate? he kept growling.
"Quiet," I told him mentally. "Charly is here."
Not Mate! he roared back.
I took a sip of whiskey to drown him out. I scanned the room. Where was Arminda? I had ordered her to be here. She needed to apologize. She needed to learn her place so we could... so we could go back to normal.
I missed her hands. I missed the way she smelled like vanilla and rain.
"Coleton?" Charly poked my cheek. "You're zoning out."
"I'm fine," I lied.
Then, it happened.
It wasn't a sound. It was a sensation.
It felt like a giant, invisible hand reached into my chest, grabbed my heart, and squeezed.
"Argh!" I gasped, dropping my glass. It shattered on the floor.
A sharp, searing pain shot through my soul. It was the feeling of a rope snapping under too much tension. It was the feeling of an anchor chain breaking, leaving the ship to drift into the storm.
NO! My wolf howled-a sound of pure, unadulterated agony.
I doubled over, clutching my chest. The room spun. The music sounded distorted, like it was underwater.
"Coleton! What's happening?" Jaydan rushed over.
"She..." I gasped, my eyes wide with terror. "She did it."
"Who?"
"Arminda," I wheezed. "The bond. It's gone."
I scrambled to my feet, shoving Charly off my lap. She landed on the floor with a squawk, but I didn't care.
I pulled out my phone. One new message.
I, Arminda Morse, accept your rejection...
The words burned into my retinas.
"No," I whispered. "No, no, no."
I tried to Mind-Link her.
Arminda! Answer me! Arminda!
Usually, a Mind-Link feels like a tunnel. Even if she was ignoring me, I could feel her presence at the other end.
Now? It was a dead wall. It was a void. Static. Nothing.
Panic, cold and sharp, flooded my veins.
"She cut the link," I shouted, my voice cracking. "She's gone!"
I ran. I sprinted out of the club, ignoring the confused shouts of my pack members. I jumped into my car and drove like a maniac back to the mansion.
I burst through the front door and ran up the stairs to the servants' quarters.
I kicked her door open.
"Arminda!"
The room was empty.
The bed was stripped. The closet was bare. The little potted plant she kept on the windowsill was gone.
But the worst part was the smell.
Or rather, the lack of it.
Her scent-that soothing, grounding scent of vanilla-was fading. It was stale.
She hadn't just left for the night. She had scrubbed the room. She had erased herself.
I fell to my knees in the center of the empty room. My wolf was thrashing, clawing at my insides, grieving the loss of the other half of his soul.
Jaydan appeared in the doorway, breathing hard.
"She's gone, Coleton," Jaydan said, his voice devoid of sympathy. "She finally left."
"Find her," I growled, looking up with wild eyes. "Track her."
"You rejected her," Jaydan said coldly. "You spent six months rejecting her. You chose Charly. Why do you care?"
Charly appeared behind Jaydan. She walked into the room, wrinkling her nose.
"Good riddance," she sneered. "Now we can turn this into a closet."
I looked at Charly.
For the first time in three years, the fog in my brain cleared for a split second.
I smelled her. Really smelled her.
Without the buffer of the Mate Bond to balance my senses, her scent was overwhelming. It was cloying. Artificial. Like rotting flowers covered in cheap perfume.
My stomach turned.
"Get out," I whispered.
"What?" Charly blinked.
"I said GET OUT!" I roared, my Alpha Voice shaking the window frames.
I buried my face in my hands. The void in my chest was growing, a black hole swallowing everything.
She accepted it. She actually accepted it.
