Chapter 475: Suffocating

Chapter 475: Seraphina

I walk, searching for Kai. He should be back by now. Where is he?

I walk toward the forest. He likes to be alone. But I need to see him.

I feel the familiar knot in my chest. The one that tightens every time one of my mates disappears. The one that whispers they are leaving you, they are all leaving you.

I ignore it.

I keep walking.

As expected, I find a huge black wolf in a cave. I remember Kai showing me this place—telling me he liked it, that he would come here often to be alone.

But after what happened with Rylan, I am afraid. Constantly.

Kai looks at me and shifts into human form.

"What are you doing here?" he asks.

"I wanted to see you. I missed you." I walk toward him.

He does not move. He does not smile. He does not reach for me.

I take his hand, needing to be close to him.

"You know when I am here, I need space," he says.

"Well, yeah, but I am your mate," I say and ge doesn’t respond to that.I do not mind. Kai never speaks much anyway.

He pulls his hand away. He shifts back to wolf form. He walks out of the cave.

I follow him out.

I remove my clothes and shift too. I carry my clothes in my mouth and catch up to him. I walk next to him.

I occasionally bump into him.

Kai once told me he loves how contrasting my white fur and his black fur are.He does not pull away and lets me walk next to him.

*

I place the steak on the plate and hand it to my mates. I get the final piece to hand to Ethan.

"No thanks, I am full," he says.

He is so tall now—almost my height.

"What do you mean?" I try to hand him the plate, and he pushes it back.

"Seriously, I am, Mum."

"You are too good to have your mother’s cooking now?" I lose my temper.

"You know that is not it," Ethan says.

"Then eat." I growl.

"I said I am already—"

"Ethan," Marcus says in a warning voice.

"Fine."

He takes the plate and sits next to Theron. He eats—or at least, he picks at his food. But I do not bring it up.

It is quiet.

We are all eating. My family. My son. It is fine.

All is fine.

It does not matter what the rumors say. What everyone says. Look at this. It is all fine.

Marcus is at the head of the table, his posture straight, his expression unreadable. He eats methodically, like everything he does—controlled, deliberate, contained.

Kai is at the far end of the table. His black hair is longer now, pulled back from his face. He eats slowly.

Theron is beside Ethan, his dark hair falling across his face, his eyes fixed on his plate.Ethan’s plate barely touched, his fork pushing food around in circles.

I set down my fork.

"Is something wrong with the food?" I ask.

No one responds.

"Ethan?" I press. "You have barely touched your plate."

"I am not hungry," he says.

"You said that earlier."

"I know."

"Then why—"

"Seraphina." Marcus’s voice is quiet but firm. "Let him be."

I do not speak anymore because when Marcus speaks like that, he leaves no room for argument.

***

Theron

It is suffocating.

Extremely suffocating.

The tension. The silence. The way no one looks at each other. The way no one speaks unless spoken to.

Not that I do not understand my mate, but being around her of late is too much.

The food tastes like wax.

Ethan forces himself to gulp it down before he stands up to leave.

"I am going to my room," he says.

He does not wait for a response.

He leaves.

The door closes behind him.

The silence stretches.Honestly, I wish I could leave too.

But I stay.

And I eat.

I know it is not my fault. But I cannot help but feel apologetic after everything that happened with Rylan.

Thinking of Rylan, I occasionally bump into him when he is bringing his pup to the pack grounds. But he mostly lives in Redmoon now, and our... relationship is non-existent.

At least before, he disliked me in a way. There was something there—rivalry, resentment, something. Now it is like I am dead to him.

And it hurts me way more than I can admit.

He does not look at me.

He does not acknowledge me.

He does not even see me.

It does not help that he does not let me touch my nephew at all. I can only see him—from a distance, from across the square, from the edge of the territory. I cannot get close. I cannot hold him. I cannot be his uncle.

I do not know what he expects from me.

I did not choose her. The goddess did. I did not ask for this bond.

No one asks for a bond.

It is a gift.

I could never leave her. Even if it feels like I want to be anywhere else sometimes, I love her too much. And there is nothing I can do about that.

That is the cruelest part of the mate bond.

You cannot fall out of love. You cannot stop caring. You cannot walk away, even when every part of you wants to.

You are bound. Tied. Tethered.

And the more she unravels, the more you feel it. The more she hurts, the more you hurt. The more she pushes you away, the more you want to stay.

I love her.

I have always loved her.

I will always love her.

Which is why I still do not understand. If Rylan felt the way I do, how could he break the bond?

I do not think I could do that.

So I sit here and eat the food I cannot taste.