Page 13 of The Alpha's Shattered Bonds

My lips twitched, but I said, “Will you please come in? You’re letting out all the heat.”

She frowned but reluctantly came in, closing the door behind her.

“Have a seat. Would you like a cup of tea?” I asked, trying to make her feel more comfortable.

She shook her head. She looked tense as if she were about to bolt out the door again, which only made my wolf prowl restlessly.

Finally, she said, “Just some water, please.” She took the bag off her back, taking a seat at the long oak table. With disorientating suddenness, I saw a younger Seffy at the table, studying. I shook my head, realizing that that intense look on her face reminded me of the seriousness in those early dark days when she’d first come to live with me.

I used the moment it took me to get a glass of water from the faucet to shake the past away. I took the seat opposite her, and she drained the glass in a single gulp. I suspected it wasn’t just the fight with Logan and the Silver Moon warriors that had made her so tired.

“How many days have you been traveling?” I asked.

Her gaze returned to me. She didn’t speak. She only looked at me with those captivating jade eyes. Fighting to control myself, I felt the unmistakable thrumming in my chest—a call from the mate bond that longed to be reignited. If I closed the distance, it whispered, I could be whole again.

“You were telling me about what happened when I left,” she prompted, steering us back to the past.

I nodded, suddenly fighting against the tide of memories—the moments I had tried to bury to stay strong in her absence. But the agony of that moment when she’d severed our mate bond resurfaced.

I fixed her with my gaze. “When you severed our bond, I called off the ceremony with Linda and went after you.”

Every word hung in the air with a monumental gravity. That night replayed in my mind with excruciating clarity. The haunting memory of coming upon the magic circle with those runes and crystals devoid of magic.

But, as the seconds ticked by and she didn’t say a word, I forced myself to tell her what I hadn’t had the chance to back then. “That night, I realized I loved you.” My heart battered my chest now that I’d taken the leap to tell her the truth.

Seraphina blinked but remained excruciatingly silent. Her fingers fidgeted with the empty glass in front of her. The question that I’d longed to ask since catching her scent in the woods today forced its way out my mouth. “Why have you come back?”

“I came back to clear my parents’ names,” she replied.

I felt the breath rush out of my lungs. That was not…what I’d been expecting. She reached for her bag, taking something out. “This is a letter from the Shadow Moon Alpha, Alexis,” she explained. “I was introduced to Selina, the Shadow Moon Luna, through a friend. I’ve been staying with her the last two years.”

Astonishment enveloped me. The Shadow Moon Pack? That’s where she’d been all this time. My thoughts skipped over what I’d heard over the last few months about our neighboring packs. Word was that there’d been a battle between the Shadow Moon and the Black Moons a few months ago. Had Seraphina been there at the time? My wolf bristled at the thought of her in harm’s way.

“Selina and Alexis captured a Black Moon prisoner,” Seraphina continued, “who said that my parents were framed. He said the dark witch helping the Black Moons to invade our pack managedto obtain their blood through the real traitor in our pack. They used blood magic to make it look like my parents’ wards and patrol duty had failed.”

The words hit me like a punch to the gut. I thought of Liam, my best friend, Seraphina’s father, whose life had been cut short along with Cordelia, her loving mother—unjustly. After the invasion and their suicides, I had ferociously searched for evidence of something—anything—that didn’t lead back to my best friend betraying me and our pack. Neither Liam nor Cordelia had behaved any differently in the days leading up to that fateful night. I’d racked my brain for memories, haunted by the hope of discovering a glimmer that would exonerate them from the monstrous accusations that had been laid on their souls, but I came up empty.

The very fact that they’d chosen to take their own lives forced me to confront the painful truth: they must have been guilty. Or so I’d thought until now.

Shock ricocheted through me. There was still a traitor in our pack—one who had circumvented justice and allowed my best friend and his wife to pay the price. Anger and grief waged war within me as this news rearranged the past in one fell swoop. I pushed back my chair, needing to move. I paced. “Goddess, forgive me, Liam, Cordelia—I failed you.” Pain and anger bled into my voice as I tracked up and down in front of the aga, its constant heat doing nothing to chase away the chill that had burrowed into my chest.

Seraphina stood up. For one glorious moment, I thought she was approaching me to comfort me, but she only lifted her hand, presenting the letter she’d spoken of. “Alexis’s letter contains everything I’ve told you.” A hardness came to her mouth. “Afterall, the word of the child of traitors can’t be trusted.” She’d come to a standstill, only a meter from me, offering me the letter.

I gritted my jaw, hating that I recognized her words as ones I’d spoken:“a child of traitors.”Another memory came to me now. Seraphina and I were in bed together, and we had just made love. I told her I couldn’t be with her because she was the child of traitors. My misguided belief that I had to have a luna beside me who the pack could trust had led me to utter those words to her. They were words that, as fate would have it, were completely untrue.

I held her gaze. “I vow to you that I will find the traitor in our pack. I will not rest until your parents—my dearest friends—have the justice they deserve,” I said with fervor.

She blinked, giving me a look I couldn’t place. She almost looked surprised as if she didn’t expect me to want justice for her parents as much as she did. Frustration wound through me. Was her opinion of me really that low?

But I couldn’t leave the rest of her reproach unconfronted either. “Also, I have always trusted you,” I said lowly. “I will always trust you. In fact,” I continued, my heart quickening as each beat demanded I tell her everything I felt. “I know that if I’d only trusted you to guide me, my heart would still be whole.” My gaze trailed over her face. I noticed her hand holding the letter was shaking as she lowered it.

A frown formed between her fine black brows. “Tyler, don’t–”

At the sound of my name on her lips, memories of our glorious night together ensnared me. I needed to tell her that every ounce of my being had yearned for her during these years apart.

“Please, Seraphina, come back to me,” I uttered. “Be with me again. I’ve never stopped looking for you or hoping you’d return.” I reached for her empty hand, my heart beating with hope as she let me hold it. “I know how forgiving your heart is, and I promise to love and protect you as I should have if you’ll only give me another chance.”

“I can’t,” she said sharply. She drew away, her hand leaving mine. “I’m sorry, Tyler… I… don’t love you anymore.”

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