The lead Healer spoke with grave concern.“The situation is critical,Mate.The pup may not survive the trauma,but we can attempt a full bond restoration—”
“There is no need,”Elara whispered,closing her eyes.
Tears,hot and silent,slipped down her temples and into the cold metal beneath her head.On the unforgiving surgical slab,the bright,sterile surgical light burned her eyelids.The metallic sounds of the tools were sharp and mechanical,and every movement felt like a piece of her very Claimed flesh was being cut away.
Elara bit down hard on her lip until she tasted the sharp tang of her own blood,refusing to make a sound.She refused to scream.She refused to let the Alpha feel the pain of his dereliction.She refused to feel anything at all.
A moon cycle later,sunlight streamed through the gauze curtains of the Pack’s private Healer’s Den,casting a deceptive warmth on the sterile cot.