No Mark, No Bond, No More Chapter 08

No Mark, No Bond, No More Chapter 08

My first weeks settling into Silvercrest City were plagued with relentless insomnia. Silvercrest Inter–Pack Trade Headquarters operated at a relentless, breakneck pace, and everything felt alien: a strange city, an unfamiliar apartment, unrecognizable ambient scents. Even the night breeze drifting through my bedroom windows lacked the pine and wild wolf musk that defined Blackwood’s territory air. 

I’d anticipated relief after walking away from Dorian, yet the severed mate bond throbbed dully deep in my core like a snapped silver thread whose jagged ends remained embedded in raw flesh. Whenever I finally slipped into fitful sleep, dreams dragged me back to the day we first met. 

I’d just graduated university then, cut off financially by my parents after a vicious falling–out over conflicting career plans and forced to pick up odd jobs around town to survive. A brutal blizzard swept through the territory one afternoon, and after days surviving on next to no food, my body shut down mid–walk and I collapsed into frozen 

snowdrifts. 

When my eyes fluttered open, a young teenage 

boy hovered over me, his furrowed brows easing 

into a warm grin the second I stirred awake. “I 

spotted you passed out alongside the road and 

rushed you to the clinic.” 

Backlit by weak winter sunlight, he stood tall and 

lean, fine features cast in soft shadow with faint 

hooded eyes that tilted gently upward at the 

corners. A faint cedar cologne clung to his skin- 

the scent I’d grow to know and crave above all 

others for years to come. 

He pulled a container of steaming soup from his 

backpack as if performing magic, thick warm 

steam curling upward when he popped the lid 

open. Grinning wide with a small dimple indenting 

his right cheek, he held the bowl out toward me. 

“Eat something first. Passing out in freezing snow 

with an empty stomach could’ve gotten you 

killed.” 

My cheeks burned hot, my heart hammering wildly behind my ribs as a flustered, unnameable 

fondness bloomed instantly inside me. 

After that day, I sought every excuse to linger near 

Dorian: asking for homework help, begging him to guide me across unfamiliar trails, claiming fear of trekking the wooded back path alone after dark. 

Bit by bit we drew closer, and falling into a 

committed relationship felt inevitable. 

Night after night I jolted awake soaked in fresh tears, refusing to dwell on those sweet, lost. 

memories any longer. 

Fresh out of training at headquarters and 

swamped with new protocols to master, I buried. 

myself in overtime work to exhaust my mind past restless sleeplessness. Before long, I finalized and 

signed my first official inter–pack trade contract 

under my portfolio. 

The department hosted a small celebratory dinner 

to mark the milestone, and I headed back to my apartment alone once the festivities wrapped. I’d barely stepped through the apartment complex’s gated entrance when a familiar figure lingered beneath the streetlamp, freezing my footsteps. 

mid–stride. 

It was Dorian. I made to duck my head and slip past unnoticed, but he lunged forward and caught my wrist before I could move on. 

His facial features remained unchanged, yet he’d wasted away drastically. Thin stubble dusted his jaw, dark bruise–like circles pooled beneath his eyes, and his once–proud, upright Alpha spine curved under an invisible weight, nothing like the 

confident, commanding leader I’d once loved. 

“Aria…” His voice came out rough and graveled, 

broken around my name. “I’m so sorry. Every 

terrible thing was my fault, I hurt you irreparably. 

I’ve cut all contact with Gavin and the rest of the 

patrol crew, and I’m done catering to Selene’s 

every whim. Can we start over? I’ll treat you right 

this time, cherish you and our pup properly.”