Ronan vanished.
Not for hours.
Days.
Auren didn't see him. Didn't hear him. Not a breath, not a growl, not even a flicker through the bond.
It was like he'd slammed a wall between them and disappeared behind it.
The first night, she paced.
The second, she screamed into her pillow.
By the third?
She started throwing things.
The manor echoed with silence too loud to bear. Every creak of wood and snap of wind outside scraped her nerves raw.
And the guards? Still stationed. Still useless. Still refusing to let her pass beyond the doors.
"Orders from the Alpha," they'd say.
And every time, she clenched her fists tighter.
She hadn't seen Ronan since that night, when he'd slammed her against the wall, growled Mine, and then walked away like he hadn't lit her entire body on fire.
He hadn't just claimed her. He'd caged her.
And then he'd disappeared.
She tried everything to distract herself...reading, pacing, sparring with shadows, but the walls felt like they were closing in tighter with every hour.
She barely ate.
Barely slept.
Until Lola.
A soft knock came at her door the morning of the fourth day.
Auren snapped, "What?"
The door creaked open, and a small figure peeked in, brown braids, wide hazel eyes, and a tray of warm bread with fresh butter and tea.
"I… um. I thought you might be hungry," the girl said, voice gentle. "You haven't come down in days."
Auren narrowed her eyes. "Who sent you?"
"No one." She stepped in carefully, balancing the tray. "I'm Lola. Kitchen maid. I just thought…" Her eyes flicked to Auren's wild hair and hollow expression. "You looked like you could use a friend."
Auren snorted. "And you're volunteering for that job?"
Lola smiled, shy but genuine. "Well… I'm not very good at cleaning the stables. I figured feeding you might be safer."
Despite herself, Auren cracked a tiny smile.
"Fine," she muttered, sitting down at the small table near the window. "But if this is poisoned, I'm haunting you."
Lola giggled. "Noted."
They ate in silence for a while, but it wasn't heavy. Just calm. Easy.
The first easy thing Auren had felt in days.
By nightfall, Lola had returned with warm towels, a tiny glass of whiskey smuggled from the kitchens, and an offhand whisper about how the Alpha once split a training dummy in half just for looking stressed.
That made Auren laugh hard enough to cry.
She didn't say much. But when Lola talked, she listened.
And when she was alone again, tucked into bed with a full stomach and the scent of fresh herbs on her sheets, Auren stared at the ceiling and whispered:
"You better be bleeding somewhere, Ronan. Because if you're hiding, I swear to the gods…"
Her voice cracked.
She didn't finish the threat.
Didn't have the energy.
All she had was the ache in her chest, the burn of a bond that refused to quiet, and a storm of confusion she couldn't outrun.
And still, nothing from him.
Just silence.
Just the bond, pulsing like it was waiting.
********************************************************************
That night, the manor slept.
Auren didn't.
Her skin buzzed with static, the bond humming beneath her bones like a wire pulled too tight. It wasn't pain, exactly.
It was absence.
Like something was supposed to be there… but wasn't.
She rolled over again. The bed felt colder without him near, even if he barely touched her, barely looked at her, barely spoke.
Still, she felt him.
Everywhere.
Then she heard it.
A scrape. A deep, inhuman sound, followed by a guttural, broken growl that sent chills down her spine.
She sat up.
Not a nightmare.
A shift.
She grabbed the heavy candleholder off her dresser and crept barefoot into the hallway, following the sound down a winding corridor lined with fogged windows and cold stone.
It led to the old solarium.
And there he was.
Ronan.
On his knees.
Back bare, shoulders tense, muscles trembling.
Claws buried into the stone floor, the thick gouges bleeding into fresh marble. Sweat clung to his skin. His head hung low, mouth open in a soundless snarl.
His body twitched.
His claws dug deeper.
He was stuck between forms.
And stuck in something far worse.
He whispered a name into the air, not with his voice, but through the bond. Quiet. Shaky. Fractured.
"…Lira."
Auren's breath caught.
He said it again. A little louder. Desperate. Strangled.
"Lira…"
Not her name.
Not even close.
He twitched violently, dragging his claws another inch through the stone, like he was trying to dig his way out of a memory.
And then he said something else.
Not a name.
A plea.
"Don't leave—" The words ripped through the bond like a whip. "I didn't know—please, I didn't—"
Auren didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
This wasn't a dream.
This was a curse.
He wasn't mourning her.
He was bound to her.
Trapped.
But the wolf?
The wolf was fighting it.
She felt it , deep in her gut, like the bond between them was waking up in her chest just by standing this close. Her mark throbbed beneath her skin. Her own breath hitched.
Ronan snarled again and collapsed forward, hands fisting the floor.
A scream built in his throat but never came out.
He was holding it back. All of it.
Pain. Rage. Love.
The grief of a bond he thought was real.
The agony of one forming that his body couldn't deny.
Auren stayed in the shadows.
Watched him war with himself.
She didn't wake him.
Didn't touch him.
When he finally stilled, breath ragged, claws bloodied, she walked forward, bare feet silent against the marble.
She crouched.
Didn't breathe.
She should've turned away. Should've walked back to her room, pretended she hadn't seen this.
But she couldn't.
Because this wasn't the silent, savage Alpha the world feared.This was something worse.
A man breaking.
Caught between the pull of the past…
And something he refused to name.
His claws twitched. His body heaved.
Whatever haunted him, whatever was still holding him, it hadn't let go.
And it wasn't just grief.It was something else.
The wolf inside him was rising, resisting, roaring beneath his skin.
She could feel it, like a static current tethered between her ribs and his.
Her mark burned.Her breath caught.And still, he didn't wake.
He just knelt there, bleeding into stone and whispering a name that wasn't hers.
Auren stepped forward. One slow inch. Then another.Her hand hovered over the gouged marble.
She touched the deepest claw mark, warm and fresh beneath her fingertips.
Her voice barely made it past her lips.
"What did they do to you?"