Sylvia Nightfang. Since you love her that much, then I will set you free. From this day forward, you and I are strangers. Mountains between us, rivers between us, and nothing left to bridge.
When I left the infirmary I found a mirror first. I fixed my face with steady hands, layering concealment over the wreckage until not a single trace showed. Only then did I return to the Nightfang ancestral Keep.
This time I did not do what I had always done. I did not lock myself in our room, clutching his photograph, weeping into the dark. Instead I walked straight to the study, and I knelt before the old Alpha patriarch.
"Grandfather Magnus. I've made my decision."
"I am letting go of Sylvia Nightfang. I am leaving the Nightfang Pack."
Ever since Sylvia Nightfang had "died," I had been the one suffering the most. Even Old Master Magnus, who was equally submerged in grief, had thought of me first. He came to persuade me. He said I was still young, that life was still long, and that I shouldn't remain trapped in this bond. He hoped I would leave the Nightfang Pack and start over, find someone who truly cherished me.