47. Mai

The door banged open, and a person I didn't recognize strode through it. I thought it was a man because of his size, but I couldn't be sure as he had a dark hood pulled over his face. He smelled of herbs, old paper, and something spicy that made me want to sneeze.

Friend or foe?

Seth appeared in the doorway behind the man. He seemed relaxed, glancing from the man to me and then back again.

Foe, then.

I darted to the left as the man paced toward me. He started chanting in a foreign language, then threw something that looked like old leaves that had been chopped into tiny pieces into the air.

What the hell?

I sneezed, and then everything went black.

My wrists were bound tightly to one of the support posts by coarse ropes that dug into my skin. Blood trickled down my arms, leaving a trail of pain. My feet were bare, and my ankles were tied, too, the cord biting into my flesh. Every movement felt like needles stabbing me.

I figured I'd been out about half an hour. When I'd come to, the hooded man had disappeared, and I'd been tied to the support post. Since then, I'd been trying to work my way loose, but these ropes were tied tight. Seth had been busy, too. He'd taken a piece of chalk from his pocket and drawn a circle around me, then another around himself. He connected the two circles with a bridge-like line. My breathing became shallow and erratic as I watched him, unable to tear my eyes away.

"Whatever this is, you don't have to do it, Seth."

Seth kept working, making little lines spiral out from the bigger of the two circles. "You know, I thought it was me. That I wasn't good enough. That was why you never gave yourself fully to me, to us. That this relationship was another thing in my life that I couldn't get right. But it's not me, Mai. It never was. It's your bond to the Three Rivers," he spat the words of my Pack. "It tied you in knots, so you couldn't be you. Not really. With it gone, you'll be able to take the Cocrane bond. It's pure, Mai. Not corrupted. Not twisted. Everything will become clear once it's gone, I promise. Then we can go back to how we used to be."

He was delusional. That had to be it.

"The bond isn't the issue, Seth," I said, trying to stay patient.

"Ah, but we won't know for sure until it is broken, will we?"

I watched him add more lines to the chalk circles and tried to make sense of them. "How long have you been working with the witches?"

Seth's hand hesitated. Werewolves were not supposed to work with the witches. Not since Simon Webster had tried to create the spell to put all werewolves under his control.

"Long enough to see the truth about our bonds. There are only some left that are pure. We have to destroy the others."

I blinked. Where was this coming from? He'd been keen for me to sever the bond to the Three Rivers when we were together, but he'd never said anything about bonds being impure.

"It's time, Mai. Are you ready?"

"Seth, this isn't going to work." I pulled against the rope.

"I have to try. I have to save us. I have to prove it's not me."

Seth began to chant, the sound echoing in the room. The air around us seemed to hum with energy, the hairs on my arms standing on end. An odd tingling sensation started in my chest and spread out through my body. The tingling ramped up until it was like thousands of tiny needles pricking at my skin, making me want to scream and claw at my own flesh. My wolf started howling; she didn't like what Seth was doing or how it was making her feel.

The chanting got louder, and the shadows seemed to dance along the walls, twisting and contorting into grotesque shapes. My stomach churned, bile rising in my throat as the thought that Seth might actually be able to snap my bonds hit me full force.

"Stop!" I yelled. "Seth, don't do this!"

He ignored me, chanting faster now. My vision blurred, the world around me shifting and swaying as if I were caught in the eye of a storm. The pain in my body was everywhere, from the tips of my fingers to the soles of my feet. It felt like I was being torn apart from the inside out, and I couldn't help but let out a raw, guttural scream.

It didn't matter that I'd spent so much time away from the Three Rivers Pack or that I'd once wanted nothing to do with them. All I knew was that I loved them—Ryan, my Pack, the land I'd grown up on, everything. And I couldn't bear the thought of losing any of it.

The air crackled with energy as the bond between me and the Three Rivers Pack began to manifest before my eyes. It was a web of shimmering silver threads, each one connecting me to the land I'd grown up on and the wolves I'd known all my life. I focused on it, on the little details—on the light seeming to come from inside each individual thread, on the patterns that each thread made, almost tribal in detail, and on the perfect way they weaved amongst each other to make up my bond—and as soon as I did, a feeling of warmth and security washed over me. It was there, not broken, not severed.

Then I watched, horrified, as a single thread frayed and began to unravel, slowly and deliberately, as if they were being pulled apart by an unseen force.

No! This could not be happening.

Another thread unraveled. Then another. Panic surged through me, and I cried out, desperate to stop Seth's ritual from destroying everything. I couldn't let this happen.

"Seth, stop!" I begged, my voice barely audible above the sound of Seth's chanting.

More threads frayed and came loose. Seth was going to do this. He was really going to break my bond with the Three Rivers.

I looked away. I couldn't watch. But then my eye caught on another bond—the mate bond between Ryan and me. It was a vibrant, pulsating golden strand, full of love and promise. Could Seth see it, too? He was concentrating on my Pack bonds, intent on his task. I mentally willed it to hide, curling it into a small ball deep within my psyche. Safe, for now.

"Damn it, Seth!" I yelled.

There had to be something I could do. A loose thread fluttered on the air currents, spiraling in front of me. It was mine. It was part of me. I reached out with my mind and gathered it to me. I had to keep it safe. Maybe if I collected all the threads, I could rebuild the bond. I moved the thread back to the bond, trying to weave it back into the main current. A tiny spark of light flashed at the spot where the thread was absorbed. This wasn't supposed to be how bonds were formed, but it was working.

The threads started to weave themselves back together, faster than before, as if they were responding to my determination.

"Is this really what you want, Mai?" Seth said through gritted teeth. Sweat was trickling down his face. "To cling to your old life? To remain shackled to a Pack that will never truly accept you? They rejected you, for fuck's sake!"

"Fuck you, Seth," I spat, channeling all my anger and fear into repairing the damaged bond. "You'll never break it."

The front door above us creaked open, and both Seth and I froze. Footsteps echoed through the house above us. My gaze went to the ceiling as if I could see through the boards to whoever was up there. Was the witch back to help Seth finish the job?

"Seth?" a voice called. "You here?"

Not the witch. Isaac. Was he here to help me or Seth?

"Damn it," Seth muttered, his eyes narrowed as he glanced toward the ceiling. Then he stood up, and the pressure on my bond collapsed. "Don't think this is over, Mai. I'll be back to finish what I started."