Betrayed By One. Bound To Three-Chapter 22: Broken Bond.

Silas.

Morning slips into my chamber without ceremony.

For a few long moments, I lie still, staring at the canopy above my bed, watching pale light creep across carved wood and heavy drapery.

The palace is quieter at dawn. The corridors have not yet filled with advisers and petitioners and the endless echo of duty. It feels almost peaceful.

Tomorrow I will be crowned Alpha.

The thought should thrill me. I have waited for this since I was old enough to understand what inheritance meant. Since I was old enough to realize that power is not something that is given. It is claimed. Held. Defended.

Yet as I stare at the ceiling, my chest feels tight rather than triumphant.

Beside me, Loretta shifts beneath the furs. I feel the warmth of her body against my side, steady and certain. She had come to me late last night, radiant with anticipation, already speaking as though the ceremony had happened.

She stirs again and her lashes flutter open. When she sees me awake, her face lights up immediately.

"You are up before the sun," she says softly.

"I could not sleep," I reply.

She pushes herself up on one elbow. "Nerves," she says. "It is only natural. Tomorrow changes everything."

Her words echo in my head in a way I do not like.

Loretta leans forward and presses a kiss to my jaw. "You will be magnificent," she murmurs. "They already look at you as their Alpha. This is only a formality now."

Formality.

I sit up slowly, letting the furs fall from my chest. The air in the room is cool against my skin, but something feels off.

Selena.

I could no longer feel the bond I shared with her. Could this mean she was finally dead? It would be the perfect coronation gift.

I cross to the wardrobe where the garments for today have been laid out. Dark fabric. Silver threading along the collar and cuffs. Subtle reminders of what I am about to become.

Behind me, Loretta slips from the bed and wraps a silk robe around herself. She moves with deliberate grace. She has been preparing for this nearly as long as I have. The title of Luna fits easily in her mouth.

"You do not look pleased," she says lightly. "If I did not know better, I would think you regret your actions towards that ugly sister of mine."

I glance at her reflection in the polished mirror. "I do not regret it."

"Then smile," she insists. "By this time tomorrow, I will stand beside you before the entire pack. They will bow. They will cheer. They will see what strength looks like."

Strength.

I fasten the clasp at my throat. "They will see stability," I say.

She comes up behind me and rests her hands on my shoulders. "They will see power," she corrects.

Her confidence is unshaken. She does not question her place at my side. She never has.

For a fleeting moment, an image rises in my mind that I do not invite: the lifeless body of Selena, covered in mud, her eyes open and staring back at me. It sends chills down my spine.

I push it away. Selena is dead to me.

Loretta is the better choice. The smarter one. The future demands certainty, not weakness.

I step out into the corridor, leaving Loretta to dress.

The palace feels larger in the morning. The torches have burned low and servants move quietly to replace them. Guards stand at attention along the walls. Their heads dip as I pass.

One breaks from his post and approaches, bowing deeply.

"Alpha."

I nod once. "Report."

"All is calm within the territory," he says. "The borders were patrolled through the night. No sign of intrusion from neighboring packs."

"And within?" I ask.

He hesitates briefly. "The princess has not been seen, my lord."

My jaw tightens. "Continue."

"There was movement in the western woods during the second watch. A white wolf was sighted. Large. Running with three black wolves. They did not approach our boundary markers. They remained within the forest."

A white wolf.

Three black wolves.

I feel a flicker of annoyance. "Strays."

"Possibly," the guard says carefully. "They moved together, my lord. Not like rogues contesting territory."

"Wolves pass through forests every night," I reply. "Maintain patrols. If they cross into our land, report to me immediately."

"Yes, my lord."

He steps back into formation.

I continue down the corridor toward the central hall, the sound of my footsteps echoing faintly against the stone.

The hall opens before me in a wash of morning light.

And I stop.

She stands near one of the far columns, as if she has always belonged there. Layers of earth-toned cloth wrap around her thin frame. Silver hair braided down her back. Eyes that miss nothing.

Eldira.

I have not seen her inside these walls in years.

For a moment I consider turning away. I do not need omens today.

But she has already seen me.

I cross the hall toward her, my steps controlled.

"You should not be here," I say quietly once I stand before her.

"And yet I am," she replies.

Her voice is steady. There is no tremor despite her age.

"Why?" I ask.

She studies my face as though looking beneath my skin. "Something stirred before dawn. Something that should not have."

"What does that mean?" I ask, controlling the tension in my voice.

Her eyes narrow. "It means the threads you wove are no longer whole."

I resist the urge to glance around the empty hall. "Speak plainly."

She inclines her head. "There are stories older than this palace, Silas. Legends your advisers dismiss as superstition."

For a moment, I wonder if this has something to do with the bond I shared with Selena.

I recall the night I visited her. The anger that burned in my chest. The certainty that if fate would not bend, I would force it. She had warned me then. Told me it would not be a true bond. Only an imitation. A weave of borrowed energy that required reinforcement.

I reinforced it.

"I do not have patience for stories," I snap.

"You should."

I fold my arms across my chest. "What are you implying?"

"In the oldest accounts," she continues, "there is mention of a sovereign bond. Not the ordinary joining of two wolves. Something rarer. A convergence. When a white wolf runs with three shadows, bound by something deeper than convenience or blood."

The guard’s words echo faintly in my mind.

I keep my expression unchanged. "You build myth from coincidence."

Her gaze does not waver. "The bond you asked me to craft years ago has broken."

"That is a good thing, isn’t it?"

"Is it?" she asks.

"She is no longer tied to me," I say evenly. "That was the only purpose it served."

"And if something else has claimed her?"

The question settles uncomfortably in the space between us.

Her words press against my chest, the guard’s report echoing in my mind. For the first time today, the thought crosses my mind with a sting.

A prickle of unease snakes through me. What if she survived the night I left her for dead? What if the bond is broken because she defied me, not because she died? I cannot allow myself to think it. I have waited for her absence, for her silence. I force calm over the faint pulse of panic at the edges of my mind.

"Impossible," I whisper.

"I felt it tear," she says, unwavering. "The thread snapped cleanly."

"You assume too much," I reply. "If the bond is broken, that is because she is dead. And if by chance, she survived and decided to sever what bound us, then she has freed me."

"You mistake the breaking of a chain for safety," she says. "Sometimes it means something stronger has replaced it."

I step closer, lowering my voice. "Tomorrow I will be crowned Alpha. The pack stands behind me. Loretta stands beside me. Whatever legend you think has awakened in the forest has no bearing on this palace or the weak dead princess."

Her eyes search mine. "I have lived long enough to recognize when the air shifts," she says. "This morning it shifted."

I force a thin smile. "Then perhaps it is the wind carrying news of my coronation."

She does not smile back.

"The white wolf and the three shadows," she says quietly. "You heard of them."

"Wolves move in forests," I repeat.

"Not like that."

Silence stretches between us.

For the first time since waking, I feel something colder than nerves. It is faint. Irritating. I refuse to give it shape.

"If the bond is broken," I say, "then I have nothing to fear. The princess was weak and wolfless and incapable of crawling out from whatever hole she is in."

She tilts her head slightly. "Be certain of what you believe you have won, Silas. Sometimes victory is only the beginning of reckoning."

I hold her gaze, unwilling to look away first.

After a long moment, she inclines her head and turns to leave.

I watch her cross the hall and disappear through the wide doorway. No one stops her. No one questions her presence.

I am alone.

Sunlight floods the banners overhead, illuminating embroidered wolves frozen in eternal dominance. The palace begins to stir beyond the hall. Voices rise in distant corridors. The day moves forward.

I lift my hand to my chest without thinking.

There had once been a sensation there when I thought of her. A warmth. A pull that was not entirely natural but convincing enough.

Now there is nothing.

Only absence.

I lower my hand.

Tomorrow the kingdom will kneel. They will call me Alpha King. And the forest will remain silent.