Chapter 93
Third Person’s POV
Cassian ignored Trista’s protests and drove her straight back to her rented apartment.
Finished
Late at night, the wind was cold outside the apartment building. The streetlights stretched their shadows long and thin.
This was a human neighborhood. The surface was quiet, as if nothing had happened. But in Cassian’s perception, the thin barrier surrounding the building filtered every rise and fall of pheromones. He had to keep his own scent suppressed to avoid causing a stir.
Trista stood at the main door, her eyes still red, looking fragile.
She blocked the entrance, preventing him from crossing the threshold, her voice rigidly cold. “When you decide to proceed with the termination ritual, just notify me.”
Cassian watched her, his eyes so dark they held almost no light.
They were heavy with suppressed worry, wariness, and the restraint of a man backed into a corner.
The lingering fear scent on her body pricked his nostrils like needles, making his wolf restless. He desperately wanted to take her, lock her away, and ensure she wouldn’t make any more “extreme decisions.”
He reached out and clasped her wrist. The force wasn’t painful, but it was unyielding. “Trista, I won’t bother you again for a while. Let’s both cool down.”
He paused, the words dragged out. “But I will not consent to terminate the mating bond.”
She looked at him, as if he were a cold, hard stone. “Then we’ll go through the werewolf Council.”
With that, she wrenched her hand away, walked into the building, and pressed the elevator button.
Her back was ramrod straight, and she didn’t look back–the finality wasn’t stubbornness; it was the self- preservation of someone who had cut off all retreat.
The elevator doors slowly closed. Cassian’s outstretched hand froze, his fingers briefly clenching, before slowly falling back to his side.
Humphrey, who had been waiting, cautiously approached, his voice low as if afraid to startle something. “Alpha Cassian, the helicopter is ready. When will you and… Luna Trista be departing?”
Cassian didn’t answer immediately. He stood looking up at her window.
A moment later, the light came on in her room, cutting a short, sharp line through the curtain gap, like a brief inhalation.
His shoulders remained straight, but his eyes reflected a deep exhaustion–the void left by prolonged suppression.
He closed his eyes.
Chapter 93
Ou
Finished He should have known this day would come the moment he personally picked up Samantha and Algernon from the airport.
When he swore before the Moon Goddess to take responsibility and acknowledge the pup, he handed over power to the “rules” themselves–not to Trista.
Their mating bond still held, but their link was fading. The more he tried to maintain order, the more he seemed to be tearing apart their last true connection.
He didn’t call Trista again, nor did he go upstairs to pressure her.
He simply stood below, walking back and forth in the light of the streetlamps. Cigarettes burned one after another, the sparks flickering like a silent act of self–punishment.
The smoke wrapped around him, trying to smother the stinging emptiness he felt.
The emptiness wasn’t loneliness; it was the chasm left by the failing mating link..
In the middle of the night, Humphrey approached again, his tone more cautious. “Alpha Cassian, the contract signing ceremony is tomorrow morning. Alpha Howard is waiting for you back home-”
Cassian finished the last cigarette in the box, grinding the stub out with his thumb. Then he pulled out his comm–stone and sent Trista a single text message.
After sending it, he looked up at the window, which had long since gone dark. His gaze held for a few seconds, as if confirming something to the shadows. Then he withdrew his attention, his voice calm and cold.
“Let’s go.”
The next morning, Cassian arrived back in Los Angeles.
Alaina met him at the airport. She didn’t ask a single question, taking him straight back to the pack manor.
The manor’s barrier was heavier than any place outside, like an invisible dome. Stepping inside, Cassian could finally release a fraction of the exhaustion he had been suppressing all night.
He walked in, cloaked in weariness.
Wilmot’s first question was sharp. “Why didn’t Trista return with you?”
Cassian looked down, his voice muffled. “She’s doing a course abroad. She can’t return yet.”
Smash. Wilmot’s cup hit the coffee table with force.
“She flies off to a foreign country as she pleases?” Wilmot/suppressed his fury. “Does she have any respect for her family?”
He turned to the omega standing by the door, issuing a command. “Go to the Silverlight pack’s residence. Tell her parents to talk some sense into her.”
Cassian immediately looked up, his tone tight. “Dad. She went for her studies. Why involve her parents?”
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