Chapter 467: It has to be me!

Adrein.

The heavy oak doors were suddenly thrown open with a violent crash, slamming against the stone wall.

"In here! Fast!" Damien screamed, his voice hoarse and frantic as he practically dragged the elderly pack healer into the room by the sleeve of his coat.

The healer, breathless and clutching his heavy leather satchel against his chest, stumbled over the threshold. His eyes widened in sheer horror as he took in the chaotic scene—Davian weeping at the foot of the bed, Aidan standing frozen with bloodshot eyes, and me kneeling on the cold floor, holding Maria’s limp, ice-cold hand against my face.

"She fainted again!" Damien yelled, rushing back to the side of the mattress, his hands hovering over her trembling form. "Right after I marked her! The bond was sealed, she woke up, and then her wolf just shut down! Fix her! You have to fix her!"

"Oh no! Move aside!" He said at the top of his voice, forgetting who held power in the room." All of you, give me space!" the healer commanded, his authoritative tone cutting through the suffocating panic in the room.

Aidan and Davian scrambled backward, though their eyes remained locked on Maria’s pale, motionless face. The healer dropped to his knees right where I was sitting. He pulled out a small glass vial of pungent herbal essence, waving it beneath her nose, before pressing three fingers firmly against the fresh, dark mark resting on the side of her neck.

I didn’t move. I stayed on my knees, staring at her delicate features, my heart aching with a hollow, agonizing pain that seemed to grow deeper with every second that passed.

"Is it the mark?!" Davian barked out, slamming his fist against his thigh in pure frustration. "Did Damien’s bite overwhelm her system? Speak to us!"

The healer closed his eyes, concentrating deeply as his palm glowed with a soft, green diagnostic light over her chest. Seconds stretched into agonizing minutes. The silence in the room was so heavy I could hear the panicked thumping of my brothers’ hearts, echoing the terrifying rhythm of my own.

Finally, the green light faded. The healer let out a long, heavy sigh, pulling his hand back and looking up at the four of us with a grim, devastating expression.

"Her body is not rejecting the physical mark," the healer revealed slowly, his voice laced with profound gravity.

Damien let out a choked, breathy gasp of relief, but the healer immediately raised a hand to cut him off.

"Do not celebrate yet, Lord Damien," the healer warned sternly. "Her physical body accepted the bite, but her spirit is in violent rejection, as her wolf is experiencing a catastrophic level of spiritual shock and severe emotional trauma. She is mentally fighting the weight of the bond."

"What does that mean?!" Aidan demanded, stepping forward, his jaw locked tight.

"It means her soul is... unstable." the healer stated plainly, looking directly into Aidan’s eyes. "The sheer panic, the fear, and the immense emotional distress she experienced right before losing consciousness has forced her wolf into a deep, defensive state. She feels trapped. If her mind continues to reject the strain of this bond, her spirit will simply break, and her heart will stop permanently. No physical medicine can fix this."

The words hung in the air like a heavy death sentence.

Damien sank to the floor, burying his face in his hands as a ragged sob tore from his throat. Davian leaned against the wall, staring blankly at the ceiling in complete, hollow shock. Aidan stood frozen, his broad shoulders trembling as the harsh reality of our possessiveness finally crushed down upon him.

’Her soul is unstable.’

The healer’s words echoed over and over in my head, slicing through my heart like a thousand sharp blades.

I looked down at Maria’s quiet, beautiful face. She looked so fragile resting against the dark sheets. We had forced our marks onto her. We had locked her away, lied to her face, and used our overwhelming Alpha pressure to bend her to our will—all under the pathetic excuse of wanting to keep her, of wanting her to be our mate. And in doing so, we were slowly, brutally killing the very person we claimed to love.

A sudden, terrifying clarity washed over my mind, stilling the chaotic storm in my chest.

’I know what I have to do,’ I thought, a cold, devastating calm settling deep inside my bones.

The bond inside my chest—the golden, throbbing thread that connected my soul to hers—was pulsing faintly, heavy with her lingering pain and rejection.

It was the bond that was crushing her. It was our collective grip on her soul that was dragging her down into the dark abyss.

If her spirit needed to be freed from the weight of the bond to breathe again... then I would give her that freedom.

I didn’t care about the laws of the pack. I didn’t care about the primal Alpha instincts screaming inside my blood. I didn’t even care about my own future happiness. The thought of living a long, comfortable life as her mate meant absolutely nothing to me if it required her to be a cold, lifeless corpse in my arms. Her life was worth infinitely more than my desires.

My trembling fingers reached out, gently tracing the soft skin of her jaw.

’I love you, Maria,’ I prayed silently, tears spilling quietly from my eyes, hot and bitter as they rolled down my cheeks. ’I love you so much that I will tear my own soul apart just to hear your heart beat again.’

The ultimate sacrifice an Alpha could ever make was not dying in battle, nor was it giving up his territory.

The ultimate sacrifice was severing the sacred thread of the mate bond—a process so agonizing, so violently painful to the spirit, that many Alphas never fully recovered from the spiritual scar.

It meant choosing to willingly reject the connection, taking the entire burden of the severing pain onto oneself to lift the weight off the mate’s soul.

I took a deep, shuddering breath, my heart hammering a slow, painful rhythm against my ribs.

I looked up at my brothers. Damien was still broken on the floor, Aidan was staring into space in absolute despair, and Davian was completely lost in his own guilt. None of them were willing to let her go. None of them could bring themselves to break the bond. They were too bound by their Alpha pride, too terrified of losing her.

’Then it has to be me,’ I realized, a agonizing lump rising in my throat. ’I will be the one to break it. I will reject my bond with her.’

I slid my hand up to her cheek, pressing my thumb gently against her warm skin, feeling the faint, weak pulse beating beneath her surface. I closed my eyes, focusing every single drop of my willpower, my love, and my spiritual energy onto the thread connecting my soul to hers.

I was ready to face the blinding agony of the rejection. I was ready to feel my own wolf roar in agony as I severed my claim, tearing my own heart to pieces if it meant her wolf could finally breathe, her mind could find peace, and her dark eyes would open once more to the light of the living.

I leaned down, pressing one last, devastating, lingering kiss onto her pale forehead.

’Live for me, Maria,’ I whispered against her skin, preparing my soul for the agonizing strike that was about to rip my world apart.