Chapter 7
Ethan’s POV
“Useless!” Ethan swept his desk clean, sending papers and inkbottles flying.
His eyes were bloodshot; he was a caged beast. “Territory-wide manhunt! Tear this place apart if you have to, but find her!”
He issued the highest-level warrant, but Bella had vanished as if into thin air.
A hidden power seemed to be helping her, erasing every trace.
Ethan knew that once a lunatic like Bella was free, the first person she would go after was Sophia.
Worry for Sophia and a soul-deep longing for her were two vipers, gnawing at his heart day and night.
The tracker he’d hired came up empty. Gabriel’s Northern Spire was an impenetrable fortress, shielding Sophia from the entire
world.
A month went by.
Ethan barely slept. He became gaunt, his former authority and sharp edge worn down by endless regret and anxiety.
Pack business piled up, but he couldn’t muster an ounce of interest.
Without Sophia, the title of Alpha felt like a cold, ironic cage.
Just as he was about to be swallowed by despair, his Beta, Eric, hurried in, holding a gold-leafed letter.
“Alpha… it’s from the Northern Spire.”
Ethan’s heart hammered against his ribs. He snatched the invitation, his hands trembling as he opened it.
Gabriel, the Northern King, would be holding a formal Bonding Ceremony with his fated mate, Sophia, at the Sacred Mountain Temple on the night of the full moon.
The announcement would be sent to every pack in the world.
A Bonding Ceremony.
Ethan felt an invisible hand crush his heart into pieces.
He tore from the citadel like a madman, shifting and running with a desperate, reckless abandon toward the Northern Spire’s
Sacred Mountain.
The ceremony was held in Gabriel’s ancestral temple. Alphas from all the major packs were there to witness it.
This wasn’t just a bonding; it was a display of Gabriel’s power.
When a disheveled and exhausted Ethan finally burst into the temple, the ceremony was at its most critical moment.
Sophia’s POV
“Stop!” Ethan’s roar echoed through the temple as he broke through the guards. “Sophia! Please, you have to listen to me!”
The entire temple fell silent. All eyes turned to the intruder.
I stood on the altar, dressed in a white ceremonial gown. The past month in the North had shown me a respect and freedom I’d never known. The fated bond between Gabriel and me had deepened daily, teaching me what true love felt like.
When I turned to look at Ethan, my expression was calm, devoid of any emotion.
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“What are you doing here?” My voice was as placid as still water.
“I’m here to stop this!” Ethan cried, his voice raw. “I know everything! Bella’s plot, the murder of her mother! It was all my fault! Sophia, I was a blind, arrogant fool!” He fell to his knees, his Alpha pride shattered. “Give me another chance. Please, let me earn back your forgiveness.”
Whispers rippled through the crowd. An Alpha, on his knees, publicly begging and admitting he was deceived by a woman.
It was almost unheard of. But my heart felt nothing.
“Ethan,” I said, my voice devoid of warmth, “some wounds can never be healed.”
Gabriel stepped to my side, his powerful presence blanketing the temple. “The ceremony will continue,” he commanded coldly. “Get this disruption out of here.”
Several large guards moved forward to drag Ethan away.
But just then, the temple doors were thrown open. A figure, her face a mask of insanity, charged in, wielding a silver dagger coated in a deadly poison.
“Sophia! If I can’t have Ethan, you can’t have happiness! Die!”
It was Bella. She had escaped.
She ran straight for the altar, the silver dagger gleaming with a fatal light.
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Chapter 8
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