Chapter 9
Orion’s POV
I always thought Aurora was just my responsibility–until she collapsed in front of me, blood
soaking through her dress from a jagged silver dagger wound in her side, blooming like poison
flowers in the snow.
My heart seized, every breath sharp with pain.
I scooped her up and sprinted to the pack’s infirmary, the wind burning my throat. One thought
pounded in my head: She can’t die.
I’d give my own life to keep her breathing.
I waited outside the stone infirmary all night, my nerves stretched to the breaking point. When the healer finally said, “She’s stable,” the tension snapped, leaving me hollow, like my insides had
been chewed raw.
I sat on the cold stone steps, watching dawn creep up the walls, and for the first time, it hit me clear as day: I love her.
But the realization came too late.
Our mate bond was still intact, though. I still had a shot to make things right.
I stayed by her bedside, staring at her pale face, too scared to touch her, my fingers brushing over a
stray lock of her hair instead.
Melody’s calls kept coming, her voice grating through the comms: “Is that woman dead yet?” For the first time, I snapped, “Shut up,” and killed the connection.
In that moment, I knew I only wanted to protect Aurora.
I drifted into a hazy nightmare: Aurora standing in the moonlight on the sacred mountain, her
voice ice–cold. “The bond’s done.” She turned and walked to Rawson.
I roared, chasing after her in the dream, but my legs wouldn’t move. I woke up drenched in cold
sweat.
When I looked up, Aurora’s eyes were open, staring right at me.
I reached for her, overjoyed, but she grabbed a clay mug from the table and hurled it at me. It
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shattered against my forehead, blood trickling down my cheek. She didn’t flinch, just spat one word: “Leave.”
Her gaze was like frost on steel, slicing straight through my chest.
I wanted to explain, to tell her I’d messed up, but she wouldn’t hear it. She struggled, and her wound tore open, blood seeping through the white bandages.
Terrified, I clamped my mouth shut and bolted for the healer.
Watching her wince as they redressed her wound, I hated myself for my impulsiveness. I was always hurting her.
Before I could even try to fix things, Melody showed up at the infirmary.
She’d broken her bond with George, she said, tears and snot streaming down her face as she clung to my arm. “All these years, it’s always been you. My stepfather forced me to leave back then.”
“One last time,” she begged,
ng in front of me, a pitiful mess. “Help me, please?”
My resolve wavered, and I caved.
I swallowed my pride and begged Aurora to drop the lawsuit. All I got was her colder stare. “Orion, you’re hopeless.”
I knew I’d lost her for good. I found Melody the best lawyer I could, hoping for a lighter sentence- my final “duty” to her. After that, we were done.
But when the courtroom announced, “Plaintiff’s attorney: Rawson Brown,” I knew it was over.
Rawson, the pack’s top legal advisor and Aurora’s childhood friend, protected her like she was his
own life.
When Melody got three years in prison, I didn’t feel sad. I felt… relieved.
Maybe now I could finally cut ties with the past.
I waited outside Aurora’s house in a blizzard, snow piling up until my limbs went numb. Then I saw
her step out of a sleek black Maybach, Rawson holding the door for her. They shared a smile that
stabbed me right in the gut.
She’d never smiled at me like that.
I rushed forward, my voice shaking. “Give me one more chance, please?”
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She looked at me, her eyes calm as a frozen lake. “Orion, it’s too late.”
Yeah. Too late.
I finally got it: some people, once you let them slip away, don’t come back.
The years I squandered, the kindness I ignored–they’d become thorns lodged in my heart. I couldn’t pull them out, couldn’t forget them, and I’d never earn her glance again.
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