The Lycan King's Outcast Omega (by Cara Anderson) novel Chapter 168

The mate connection presents unnecessary complication to our arrangement, Cassius's voice reaches through bond growing dangerously thin as the specialized tool activates.

Impossible coldness spreads through our connection as the ancient magic begins its work – severing a sacred bond designed by the Moon Goddess herself to remain permanent. My beast howls in agony as the connection to our mate starts unraveling despite her desperate resistance, every fiber of her being fighting magic specifically designed to destroy what should be inviolate.

This time I do hit my needs. The pain of feeling my precious mate slip away from me is a torture beyond words. One I’m not sure I’ll survive. Even the strongest beast will fall when his heart is ripped from his chest.

Goddess give me the strength to go on. For her. My heart. My very soul.

"Inner perimeter breached," someone reports, their voice distant through the haze of bond-pain now threatening to overwhelm even my control. "Compound entrance located."

Fight it, Sage's desperate thought reaches me through our rapidly deteriorating connection. Our bond is stronger than any tool, any magic, any— Her words trail off, but hearing them gives me the push I need to go on, to get back on my feet and fight my way through the agony of feeling her stripped away from me.

Her presence fades further as Cassius’s magic tool continues its devastating work, our treasured connection, maintained through trials and strengthened through our marking ceremony, now disintegrating like ashes in the wind. I push forward with impossible speed, abandoning all tactical caution, racing against a countdown measured in mere heartbeats.

Please, her desperation slashes through me again and again, death by a thousand cuts, too far away to spare her. Please don't do this.

The bond flickers, fades, struggles to survive, to hold on to even the barest hint of connection. I throw myself against the compound entrance as the explosives finally breach the outer door, warriors flowing through the opening to neutralize the remaining internal security systems.

But it’s too late, enough of our connection intact to feel the sensation of teeth piercing the vulnerable skin where my mark should remain. The violation transcends territorial rage, more than the loss of a treasured possession. This enters the realm of sacrilege no wolf should survive committing.

The final thread connecting us severs just as internal barriers fall, warriors clearing a path to the central chamber where monitors indicate life signs matching Sage's unique pattern. Bond-silence crashes through me like a physical blow, our precious connection, the bond that drew me out of a black, empty existence into a life of love, joy and purpose, suddenly, catastrophically absent.

I burst through the final doorway in time to witness a scene from my darkest nightmare – Sage unconscious on a medical bed, Cassius withdrawing from her neck where his fresh mark now replaces what should be my claim. Blood on his mouth confirming what I already knew. I’ve failed her. Utterly and completely.