Chapter 9 Kieran's POV. I slammed through the heavy doors in my massive wolf form, charging forward at breakneck speed, leaving destruction in my wake. The moment I shifted back to human form, I sprinted toward Elise's room with desperate urgency. "Elise! The ceremony's over! We can leave now! Right now!" I shouted excitedly, bursting through her bedroom door without hesitation. However, the next moment, the smile on my face froze. The room still looked exactly as it had when Elise lived here. Her favorite books lay open on the desk, and the air still carried traces of her gentle scent that always calmed me. Yet, it was empty. Every single one of her personal belongings had vanished without a trace. The closet hung wide open, completely bare, while the vanity table sat stripped of everything. It was as if she had never existed at all. "Elise? Elise!" My breath hitched and stopped. My trembling voice echoed through the hollow room, but the woman who used to answer me softly was nowhere to be found. Panic surged through me like a tidal wave, threatening to drown me completely. I spun around like a wild beast that had lost control, frantically searching every corner of the estate. The library, the lounge, even the armory, where she would never set foot. I tore through every possible hiding place with desperation. Terror spread through my veins like poison, weighing me down until I could barely breathe. I grabbed the trembling housekeeper cowering in the corner and shook her roughly. "Where is she?! I told you to watch her! Where did she go?!" To prevent Elise from escaping, I had not only locked her door and increased the guards but also ordered the servants to monitor her every move. In my mind, there was no way a human like Elise could leave our heavily guarded pack territory alone. So why was she gone now?! The housekeeper was too terrified to speak. Just then, Lucian emerged slowly from the shadows, his voice cold and eerily calm as he said, "Stop looking, Kieran. She's already 1/3 Chapter D gone." I whipped around, my eyes blazing red as I glared at him. "Gone?! Where did she go?!" Lucian looked at me like he was watching a stubborn child throw a tantrum. "She's gone somewhere you'll never find her. Since you've completed the Moonlight Vow, just focus on being Alpha from now on and stay with Cecelia and your pups. Stop thinking about that human." The word 'gone' sounded so absurd that it was almost laughable. I thought it was impossible. After all, Elise would only leave with me, just as she had promised from the beginning. She loved me so much that she had waited for me, enduring everything and even letting me have pups with Cecelia. If she really wanted to leave, she should have done it when I compromised with the Elders and agreed to have pups with Cecelia, not stayed behind out of sentiment and waited all these years. "Did you force her to leave?" My voice suddenly rose, and my Alpha aura burst out uncontrollably, making the hallway walls vibrate with its power. "I already agreed to have pups with Cecelia and went through the Moonlight Vow with her. I gave you everything you wanted! Why did you still drive her away?!" The silence that followed was deafening, filled only with the drumming of my heart and my ragged breathing. In this suffocating quiet, Lucian said nothing. He simply stepped forward and handed me a letter. "We didn't drive her away. She chose to leave on her own, and you'll understand why when you read this." I hesitated for a moment before looking down at the letter Lucian had given me. On the parchment, in Elise's delicate yet resolute handwriting. [To Kieran.] I instinctively reached out to touch the pristine white envelope with my fingertips. It was ice cold, and the chill that traveled through my fingertips struck me like sharp lightning, instantly piercing through all my nerves and pretenses. My fingers pulled back and reached out several times before I finally took the letter from Lucian's hand. The sound of tearing paper filled the air as I slowly ripped open the envelope's edge. Inside was a letter, her script beautiful and neat. [By the time you read this letter, I will already be gone. You don't need to know where I went; you won't be able to find me anyway. The reason I'm leaving is simple: I don't want to wait anymore. At first, you said you just needed an heir and that would be enough, and I believed you. [Later, when Tyra was born, you said she needed her father for a while longer before we could leave, and I believed that too. Then, you said you needed a son to inherit the pack before we could go, and I still tried to believe. [But now, you're taking a blood oath with her under the Moon Goddess' witness. Kieran, how much longer was I supposed to 2/3 Chapter 0 wait? Until your heir came of age and took your place? Or until Cecelia's life came to an end? +25 Bonus [I'm human. My life is short and fragile. I can't endure the endless waiting that werewolves can. I don't want to keep wasting what little time and dignity I have left on a promise with no end in sight. [When the Moonlight Vow echoed through the sacred grounds, everything between you and me ended. The mate bond is now severed, and we will never see each other again. Elise.] Only then did I understand that the sudden pain in my body and my wolf's restless howling during the vow with Cecelia had come from severing our mate bond. It was me. I had destroyed our love with my own hands. With trembling hands, I read Elise's farewell letter again, and then once more. The paper shook in my fingers, making soft rustling sounds that seemed to echo my shattered heart. A sharp, metallic taste surged up my throat before I could stop it, and the world around me suddenly began to twist and spin. Colors bled away, sounds grew distant, and the solid floor beneath my feet seemed to collapse, melting into bottomless, icy quicksand. I was silently and irresistibly swallowed by this quicksand, plummeting straight down into an abyss with no light, no echo, and nothing but endless cold. My entire world plunged into complete darkness. "Alpha Kieran, what's happening to you?! Get the healer!