CHAPTER 304: _THE BOND IS STRONGER

"Lord Ryker!"

Odessa’s voice ripped across the packlands like a god’s verdict.

Lightning split the sky, rumbling in sync with her fury, and the blood rain poured harder. The air stank of metal and ozone.

I stormed down the steps of the event hall, ignoring the crimson downpour soaking my tuxedo. My eyes searched desperately for her silhouette while my hand dug into my pocket for my phone.

"Sir."

The voice made me whip my head to the left.

Layla.

She stood two meters away, still as a stone. Her dress clung to her from the rain, her eyes empty like a doll’s. My jaw clenched.

"Where the hell have you been?" I snapped, stalking toward her. My voice was a growl. "What’s the situation? I was about to—"

"Rogue werewolves have breached the gate." Her tone was cold enough to frost glass. "They’re attacking the pack members who aren’t at the festival."

My grip on the phone loosened. For a split second, all I could hear was Odessa’s voice still thundering overhead:

"If you can hear me... here I am. It’s me you want!"

The words chilled me deeper than the rain.

Something in my instincts screamed—danger.

Suddenly, pain tore into my right shoulder before my brain caught up. My breath caught, my body jerking forward as I looked down to see the hilt of a silver dagger lodged in my flesh.

My gaze snapped back to Layla.

Her expression flickered—from empty to wide-eyed, then trembling with fear.

"Layla..." My voice was low, dangerous.

She stumbled back, shaking her head like she was waking from a nightmare. "I—he’s been in my head for months... pushing me to—"

’Kill her,’ Damon’s voice snarled in my mind. "She knew. She let them in. You told her to call the Alphas of North America for extra security—"

My rage swelled.

I took a single step forward, my Alpha King aura igniting into silver flames. The ground quaked under us as I wrenched the dagger from my shoulder and flung it aside like garbage.

Pack soldiers nearby froze, some bowing instinctively.

"WHO?!" I boomed.

Her mouth opened but then blood spilt down her chin instead of words.

"No!" I lunged, catching her before she collapsed fully. Her body convulsed in my arms as rain plastered her hair to her face.

Above us, Odessa hovered hundreds of meters up, black energy coiling from her like smoke from a fire. The clouds wrapped around her like writhing serpents, lightning flashing red instead of blue.

"Layla! Stay with me!" I commanded, forcing my aura into my voice, trying to compel her to speak.

Her lips trembled. "He’s... in her head... too—"

Her body went limp. Her eyes stayed open, but the light was gone.

My chest tightened. Six years. Six damn years she’d been my right hand and she died on her knees in the rain.

I laid her down gently, clenching my jaw until it ached. "It’s Ryker. This is all him."

"Alpha King."

Althea’s voice cut through the storm. She stood a few feet away, her purple robes whipping violently in the wind, her eyes sharp and unblinking.

"There’s no saving her," she said evenly. "But there is still hope for your mate."

Before I could answer, Janelle, Thorian, and Mwansa stepped out from the event hall behind her.

"The others are calming the people," Janelle called over the wind. "The hall will be the safest place for them."

Her gaze briefly locked with Althea’s and I could’ve sworn I saw suspicion and scrutiny in both their eyes.

But I didn’t care. My eyes were back on Odessa.

"Go. Reach your mate," Thorian ordered, his tone like steel. "We’ll deal with the rogues."

Another thunderclap shook the ground as he blurred into the distance, ripping into a rogue wolf before he even realised he was there.

"They’re at the gates the most," Althea added. She raised a hand, murmuring an incantation, and a bright blue portal flared into existence beside her.

"I’ll go," she continued. "It seems someone destroyed the moon stone protecting the pack."

My heart skipped a beat when I heard that.

My fists clenched... That moonstone has protected this pack for decades. And now it was gone?

"I’ll follow her," Janelle said, stepping toward the portal. She glanced over her shoulder at me. "Remember... The mate bond is stronger than whatever is holding her. Even the Lord of the North."

With that, she and Mwansa disappeared through the portal.

It vanished, leaving me alone in the storm.

I raised my head again just in time to see Odessa’s black energy unravel into a dome, expanding outward like a heartbeat.

Every instinct in me screamed that if she sealed that dome, she’d be lost to me.

I bolted, my wolf’s speed eating the distance between us. Rogues lunged from alleys and rooftops, but I barely slowed. My claws slashed air as I ripped them apart mid-stride without blinking.

My focus was on her. Only her.

.

.

I broke into the clearing beneath her.

She hovered there, hair whipping wildly, the sigils on her arms burning dark as ink. Her eyes... gods, her eyes weren’t hers anymore.

Just black, swirling void.

"Odessa!" I roared over the storm.

Her head tilted slightly, but not toward me. It was like she was listening to someone else.

I tried the mind link again. Nothing. That connection, that lifeline between us, was gone.

The rain hit harder. The ground beneath me was already slick with blood, but when the droplets touched me, they burned faintly, charged with magic and grief.

"Come back to me!" I shouted, chest heaving.

Her lips moved, but the voice that echoed wasn’t hers—it was deeper, laced with cruelty. "You can’t follow me where I’m going, Kaelos."

My jaw tightened. "The hell I can’t."

She raised her hands, and the dome pulsed with a burst of energy, shoving me back with a force that rattled my bones. I skidded, my boots digging into the mud to stop myself from falling.

Every part of me wanted to shift. To leap. To tear through whatever this was. But something deeper told me that raw strength wouldn’t be enough here.

Ryker was winning.

No. Not while I was still breathing.

I took a step forward, letting the mate bond surge in my chest, willing it to break through whatever wall he’d put in her mind.

’Feel me, Odessa. Remember me.’

Suddenly, a flicker crossed her face, barely there. But it was enough to make me push harder.

"Whatever you think you’ve lost, we’ll get it back," I said, my voice breaking. "But I’m not losing you."

Lightning split the sky again, bathing her in blood-red light. For a second, I thought I saw her eyes soften—like Odessa was clawing her way back.

Then she whispered one word that made my blood run cold:

"Run."