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    <b>CHAPTER </b><b>91 </b>


    <b>Elias </b><b>POV </b>


    I was sprawled across my bed, an empty vodka bottle lying next to me on the mattress, when pounding erupted on my bedroom door.


    I ignored it, staring nkly at the ceiling, until the door mmed open. Luke stood in the doorway, his new mate Emory hovering just behind him.


    “Get out,” I muttered, rolling onto my side so I didn’t have to look at them.


    “Elias, you need to get your ass out of this bed,” Luke barked. His voice carried the tone ofmand, but I didn’t move. I didn’t have the energy, and I sure as hell didn’t have anything to say to him.


    “Alpha,” Luke pushed, his voice hardening, “you need to get up. This pack is depending on you. They need their leader.”


    “Their Queen is dead,” I said tly.


    “You don’t know that,” Luke shot back, his voice rising in frustration.


    “She’s been gone for two and a half months,” I snapped, still not looking at him. “She would’vee back to me by now. She’s dead.”


    “Maybe she just can’t find a way back,” Emory interjected quietly. “We’ve been researching how to open a portal and we’vee uppletely empty. Maybe… maybe she can’t figure it


    out either.”


    “I didn’t ask for your opinion,” I bit out, cutting her off.


    “Alpha. The people need you,” Luke said again, quieter this time, almost pleading.


    But I just dragged the nket up over my head, shutting them outpletely.


    I heard them whisper something to each other before their footsteps retreated and the door


    closed behind them.


    Finally, I sat up, swinging my legs over the side of the bed.


    The fading sunlight filtering through the window told me the sun was setting. Soon, the pack would be heading out for the evening run–a tradition Luke had started. He said it was good for bonding, especially for the members who had joined us after I killed their former Alpha. A way to bring everyone together, to strengthen the pack.


    < CHAPTER 91


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    I wouldn’t know. I’d never been to one. But it didn’t matter; I was d they’d all be gone soon.


    I stood and walked to the wardrobe. All of Lyra’s clothes still hung inside, untouched. I reached out and ran my fingers along the fabric, breathing in her scent.


    The familiar smell stabbed straight through my chest, shattering me into pieces all over


    again.


    I knew I was torturing myself, but her scent–lingering in this room, on these clothes–was the only thing keeping me the slightest bit sane. Even if everyone else believed I’dpletely


    lost it.


    Crossing the room, I stopped by the window and looked down at the gathering below. The entire pack was assembling for the dinner before the run, their voices carrying upward inughter and chatter.


    I was d they were enjoying themselves. I didn’t expect them to stop living just because Lyra was gone.


    But that didn’t mean I had to join them.


    I sank into the chair beneath the window, the same one Lyra loved to curl up in with a book, and reached for the framed photo on the table beside it.


    It was from her sixteenth birthday–the first picture I had of her looking healthy, genuinely smiling at the camera.


    She was so damn beautiful.


    I stared at her face and felt my throat tighten. I couldn’t understand how the Moon Goddess could ce something so breathtaking on this earth, only to rip her away from me so easily.


    It didn’t feel fair at all.


    I guess my faith in the Moon Goddess waspletely gone at this point.


    “No Alpha tonight?” Rowan asked quietly.


    “No. He still won’te out of his room,” Luke replied with a heavy sigh.


    “Well, can you really me him? That’s what every decent mate feels when they lose their other half,” Rowan said softly. “Mine didn’t… but then again, he did order my death.” <fn2fe2> This text is hosted at FindN0vel</fn2fe2>


    “I’ve known him my entire life,” Luke said, running a hand through his hair. “I hate seeing him like this. I wish there was something I could do.”


    “There isn’t,” Rowan said matter–of–factly. “Not in this kind of situation. Nothing you say or do


    :


    < CHAPTER 91


    will make him want toe back to thend of the living.”


    im


    “She’s right,” Corbin added. “When my mother died, my father was destroyed. Mates handle it differently, but Alpha Elias has chosen to shut himself away. My father did the same for a while… but then he startedshing out, losing control. He beat me more than once and came close to killing me a couple of times. It wasn’t really him; it was the grief consuming him.”


    “Yeah, I get that it’s hard when you lose a mate,” Luke admitted, his voice low. “But I’ve never seen it firsthand before. I just… I don’t know what to do. He’s my best friend.”


    “You just need to give him time. As much time as he needs,” Rowan said gently.


    That was thest straw. I’d had enough of listening to them talk about me like I was some lost cause.


    I got up, yanked open my bedroom door, and walked out without a word.


    Downstairs, I headed straight to the wine cer and grabbed another bottle of vodka. I ripped the lid off and drank straight from the bottle, not even stopping to breathe.


    When I was done, I made my way back upstairs and slipped out the back door.


    Everyone else was on the other side of the castle, gathered for the pack dinner. They wouldn’t even know I was out here. It was too far away for them to hear me, just as I couldn’t hear


    them.


    I leaned against the low stone wall overlooking the massive 100–foot drop down to the ocean. I stayed there until thest drop of vodka was gone.


    Then I let the empty bottle fall from my hand. I watched it plummet all the way down, shattering into pieces on the jagged rocks below.


    Straightening up, I looked back at the castle… and then back at the endless ocean.


    I knew what needed to be done.


    I couldn’t keep living like this.


    I <i>refused </i>to keep living like this.


    It was killing me slowly, and I wasn’t going to let it.


    If I was going out, it would be on my own terms.


    Everyone knew that about me.


    I took off my watch and the ne with the shark tooth Lyra had given me and set them


    < CHAPTER 91


    carefully on the table near the castle wall.


    Then I climbed up onto the brick wall.


    im


    I took a few deep breaths, inhaling the salty sea air and feeling the cool breeze brush against my skin.


    I looked down.


    And just as I was about to take that final step off the wall, something mmed hard into me, knocking the breath from my lungs and dragging me backward, away from the edge, and onto the stone patio.


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