Mark’s POV

She was gone.

Not in the dramatic way, no flaring bond severed, no violent rupture through the pack link. Just… quiet. A thinning thread, barely humming in my chest. The kind of silence that made your stomach turn before your mind could catch up.

I was still in the courtyard, watching the dusk settle across the estate like an unwanted guest, when the feeling hit. At first, I thought I was imagining things. Rissa had been coiled up in her skin for days now, prickly, aching, ...