Xander's POV

The pain didn’t come all at once.

It started as a dull pressure in my chest,like someone had pressed a stone to my heart. It's manageable,yet unforgettable.

Then it surged.

I woke up gasping, drenched in sweat, clawing at my chest as if I could dig out whatever was crushing me from the inside. My heart thundered in my ears, loud and panicked, the sound of a man who had made a mistake the earth could not forgive.

My wolf howled.

Not a growl.

A howl of mourning,and of pains.

The bed sheets tangled around my legs as I staggered upright,the world spun and the shadows danced like ghosts on the wall.

I knew with terrifying certainty that something sacred had been severed.

The mate bond has been broken.

I stumbled toward the mirror, gripping the wooden dresser to steady myself. My reflection stared back, my eyes sunken, and my chest heaving.

Sweat pouring like I had been running for miles.

But I hadn’t run, I had rejected a part of me, and now I was the one left shattered.

“Pull yourself together,” I hissed at my reflection, but the command rang hollow.

My wolf didn’t listen.

He paced and snarled inside me, slamming against the walls of my mind, angry and hurt and afraid because she was gone.

“Mia”.

Her name echoed in my chest like a drumbeat of regret.

I pressed a fist to my sternum.

I thought the rejection would give me strength and clarity.

That walking away from a mute Luna who couldn’t lead, couldn’t speak, couldn’t represent this pack, I thought it would make me stronger.

Instead, I felt like I was dying.

Kanny had warned me. “You don’t break a fated bond without consequences,” he would whisper during the moon ceremony.

I didn’t listen.

I told myself I was choosing duty over emotion.

But now,duty tasted like ash in my mouth.

I slammed my hand on the dresser, the pain grounding me.

I had to pull myself together,the pack needed a leader and the Elders were already whispering about the future,the rogue threats, the Blood Moon Pack watching from the borders.

Here I was crumbling.

What would they say if they saw their mighty Alpha clutching at his chest like a broken man?

No.

I won't let them see me like this.

I straightened slowly, but the pressure in my chest didn’t ease. It throbbed, like a gaping wound where Mia once existed in me.

Her silence haunted me more now than her presence ever did.

I remembered how she looked,standing in the moonlight, hands trembling, eyes wide,but not crying.

She didn't plead,not for once.

She was just watching me with a quiet strength I never truly understood,until now.

I thought silence meant weakness.

But her silence was louder than my roar,and now the bond,the tether the Goddess herself spun between us was frayed,not just spiritually but even physically.

The pain wasn’t just heartbreak,it was a curse.

I dropped to my knees,sweat pooled at the base of my neck.

My breathing grew shallow,and my limbs felt heavier by the second,and worse than the physical decay was the emptiness.

Like someone had taken a blade to my soul and carved out everything good, everything light.

I could feel her absence,and something dark rising in its place.

Not just sorrow, but something ancient.

Like the rejection had triggered more than just a broken bond, it had opened a gate.

A curse older than the packs,a punishment waiting in silence.

The Moon Goddess wasn’t done with me.

She was watching,judging,and maybe... punishing.

There was a knock at the door.

I didn’t answer.

It opened anyway.

Kanny stepped in, eyes narrowing the second he saw me on the floor.

“Alpha?” he said, voice low, cautious.

“I’m fine,” I growled, but my voice cracked halfway through the lie.

Kanny didn’t speak. He just stood there, watching me fight myself, watching the mighty Xander Benwood sweat and tremble like a pup left in the cold.

He knelt slowly, his hand resting near,but not on my shoulder.

“What did you feel?” he asked.

I couldn’t look at him.

“I don’t know,” I rasped.

“Something... is wrong, very wrong.

It’s not just the rejection,it’s something else and I feel like I’m being hollowed out.”

He nodded once, quietly.

“There are legends,” he said, “that when the bond of true mates is broken, it creates a rift, and if the bond is strong enough... that rift doesn’t just affect the heart.”

My jaw clenched.

He continued, “The bond was meant to balance you. Rejecting her wasn’t just emotional,it was spiritual treason,against the order and against fate.”

“I did what I had to do,” I bit out.

“Did you?” he asked softly. “Or did you do what you feared?”

The silence hung between us like a blade.

I pushed myself up slowly, my knees cracking from the pressure.

“I need to find the Seer,” I said at last. “There’s something inside me, shifting. It’s not normal,and I won’t let it destroy me.”

Kanny stood, nodding. “I’ll prepare the horses. But Alpha…” he hesitated.

“If the Goddess is the one punishing you... I don’t think a Seer will be enough.”

I looked out the window, into the dark forest beyond.

A wind howled through the trees, and for a heartbeat,just one that I thought I heard her name.

Mia.

The weight in my chest deepened.

The bond was broken.

But as I turned from the window, the shadows crept in suspiciously.

The mirror behind me cracked,and in the shattered glass…

I saw my bonded mate.

But not as she used to be.

Her eyes glowed silver.

Her lips moved and though I had never heard her voice before, I heard it now.

“You weren’t the one who broke the bond, Xander…

I …..”