Chapter 78

Seris’s POV

I staggered as waves of agony consumed me. The colder and more limp she became in my arms, the sharper the pain stabbed at my chest. I’d known it would hurt, but I’d never imagined how crushing it could be. I cried out and let her fall, limp and lifeless, to the frosty ground. It felt as though my heart was being torn from my chest, that some vital piece of my soul was being wrenched away.

It was the pack bond. Valeria had taught me all about it. As Luna—mother of the pack—once I was mated and sealed to our pack, I would feel every death among our ranks. She never warned me just how excruciating it would be, though—and I realized, in that raw moment, that I had taken her life myself. Nothing could intensify the bond’s wrath more than my own hands ending a packmate’s existence. I sank to the snow beside her still body.

Tears streamed down my face, not entirely from the physical pain but from the horror that I had killed someone. I raised trembling