Chapter 108: BROKEN BONDS
Chapter 108: Broken Bonds
The Harvester’s shadow fell across them like night coming too early. Above, Council ships filled the sky, carrying trapped supernatural beings toward their doom.
But inside the barrier shell, something else was breaking apart. Liana doubled over, holding her chest as pain shot through the mate bond.
"What’s happening?" Darius asked, catching her as she tripped. "The bond," she gasped. "It’s... fracturing." Through the connection that had always tied her to the triplets, she could feel them changing.
The stress of betrayal, the weight of impossible decisions, the horror of watching their people being harvested - it was tearing apart everything that made them who they were. Kael’s words cut through the bond, cold as winter steel. "Emotional ties are a liability. We need to think tactically."
"Kael, no," Liana whispered, but she could already feel him pulling away from the link, wrapping his heart in ice. Miles away, Kael stood in the pack’s war room, studying maps covered in red marks.
Each mark marked a failed safe house, a captured family, a community wiped out by Marcus’s betrayal.
"Sir," a pack warrior reported, "we’ve lost touch with the Portland Wolves. And the Chicago Coven isn’t answering either." "Expected," Kael said without feeling.
"Mark them as compromised." "But sir, there might be survivors. Shouldn’t we try to—" "No." Kael’s grey eyes were cold.
"Rescue missions lose resources we can’t spare. Our goal is identifying which assets are still viable." The warrior looked shocked. "Assets? Sir, these are people. Families."
"These are variables in a tactical equation," Kael corrected. "Variables that have been removed from play."
Through the bond, Liana felt his choice like a knife to the heart. "He’s shutting down," she told the others. "Kael is cutting off all emotional responses." "Maybe that’s smart," Death offered. "Emotions can be—" "It’s not smart!" Liana snapped.