---- Chapter 13 Elara POV: The car sped past the final marker of the Bloodstone territory. We were through. We were safe. And then the pain hit. It was a cataclysm. A supernova of agony that exploded in my chest and tore through every cell in my body. A scream was ripped from my throat as the bond, the sacred connection to my mate, was brutally severed. It felt like my soul was being torn in two. The car screeched to a halt just inside the shimmering, invisible barrier that marked the entrance to Silver Moon lands. | stumbled out, leaning against a tree for support, my body trembling violently. | looked down at my belly, where my child, his child, rested. The pain of the rejection was a firestorm, and | feared it would consume us both. "No." | gritted my teeth, drawing on a strength | didn't know | possessed. The strength of a mother. The strength of a White Wolf. ---- He wanted to raise another's child? Fine. Then he would never, ever know his own. This child, this precious piece of my soul, would belong to me and me alone. He would carry my name, my bloodline, my legacy. My warrior escort opened a shimmering portal in the air before me, a swirling vortex of silver light that smelled of home. It was the entrance to the Sanctuary, the sacred heart of the Silver Moon Pack. With one last, shuddering breath, | straightened my shoulders, clutched the broken pieces of the moonstone in my hand, and stepped through the portal without a backward glance. The world dissolved into light, and as the portal closed behind me, it sealed my past away forever.