---- Chapter 5 Lyra's POV "My daughter." My father's voice trembled, his old hand gently brushing the scars on my neck. Marks left from five years of enduring 99 failed markings. Not just on my skin, but burned deep into my soul. "Father." I knelt before the throne, my voice terrifyingly calm. "I'm back." "Five years!" Father roared with anger. "My daughter suffered humiliation in that savage tribe for five years! I'll wipe Blackrock off the map!" "There's no need." I stood up, my silver hair shimmering in the moonlight. "It's all over." But the spiritual link I'd severed with my secret arts would only last seven days. It was already the sixth. ---- That night, I knelt in the deepest part of the Moon Goddess temple. "Great Moon Goddess, I beg you, completely sever this fated bond." The moonlight suddenly blazed, and a majestic voice echoed, ''A fated bond cannot be severed. It is an imprint on your very souls." "Why?" I looked up, furious. "He betrayed me!" "Pain and redemption exist together. To end this bond requires a deeper price." Damn it! Thad completely left the Blackrock pack, yet I still couldn't truly escape this utterly humiliating link. But, I absolutely will not be troubled by useless emotions again! In the days that followed, I threw myself into work. Politics, training, studies - anything to make me ---- forget that name. Dad seemed pretty happy with how I'd changed, but he was still stressing about me finding someone. He kept trying to set me up with these so-called " top Alphas" from all the different tribes, but honestly, I couldn't care less about any of them. Like when Marcus, that Alpha from the Northridge tribe, tried to sweet-talk me with moonpetal flowers, I just put my sword to his throat, cold as ice, and told him to back off. I knew, deep down, I was going to be the real heir to the Moonshadow Sanctum. I didn't need help from any man. My own strength and smarts were enough to make any Alpha bend the knee. So, to give me a boost, and to basically announce to everyone who I was, Dad made a huge decision.