Chapter 257


    AARON


    I thought absorbing Alpha powers the first time had been painful.


    It had nothing on the absolute tearing going on within me once the mating bond broke.


    It feels like my body is being ripped apart at a cellr level.


    But through all that, I’m holding onto Leah, because I know she’s going through the same thing.


    I have no idea how long it goes on for, only that it doesn’t feel like its ever going to end.


    Somehow, through the pain, I start wondering if I’m going to


    survive this after all.


    Worse, I wonder if Leah will survive this.


    I know she’s strong, but she’s been through so much already.


    Eventually, however, the pain starts to feel less intense and I think maybe I’m through the worst of it.


    I rouse myself enough to look blearily down at Leah, who is


    limp and pale in my arms.


    I’m not even sure she’s breathing.


    “Leah,” I whisper, my voice hoarse.


    However, before I can properly check that my mate–no, not my mate any longer–is still alive, some


    Enforcers step up and drag us apart.


    “Take Alpha Rathborn back to his cell,” Samsen says somewhere nearby.


    from


    “No, wait!” I protest, trying to fight against the Enforcer’s hold,


    but I’m as weak as a newbornmb.


    Fighting to survive the effects of breaking the mating bond has sapped all my strength.


    “I need to know she’s okay!” I yell as the Enforcers drag me


    away.


    Samsen and Petyr step closer to Leah,ying where the other


    Enforcer left her after pulling us apart.


    Petyr kneels down and presses his fingers into Leah’s neck, and then looks up at S?msen with a shake


    of his head.


    My heart stops.


    “Is she okay?” I shout, but the Enforcers are still dragging me away. “Tell me she’s alive!”


    Neither Samsen nor Petyr bother to answer me, but Petyr


    drags a cloth from the nearby table and drapes it over Leah’s still form.


    No. N?velDrama.Org holds text ? rights.


    This can’t be happening.


    She can’t be dead.


    She was meant to survive to go home to Ethan.


    Breaking the mating bond was meant to save her, not kill her.


    If Leah is gone and I’m to be executed, what will happen to


    Ethan?


    I need to see her.


    I need to check for myself that she’s really gone, but I’m too wiped from the hours of unrelenting pain to


    fight against the two Enforcers dragging me out of the hall and back down to my cell.


    They unceremoniously dump me on the floor and then march out again, loudly nging the cell door


    behind themselves.


    “Say, you don’t look so good,” Axel drawls from across the


    corridor. “They’ve worked me over good a time or two, but I ain’t never been dragged back to my cell.”


    I roll over so I can stare at him, and he must see something in my face, because his expression


    hardens.


    “What did they do to you?”


    “I had to break the bond with my mate,” I say, my words scratchy because my throat is raw.


    “You did what?” Axel demands. “Why the hell would you do a thing like that?”


    “I didn’t have a choice,” I say, dragging myself up so I’m at least sitting. “They’ve sentenced me to


    death for treason. I’m


    going to be executed under the next full moon. I couldn’t risk


    my mate dying when I did, we have a son. He’s not even six


    months old.”


    “Son of a bitch,” Axel mutters darkly. “At least you did everything you could to protect her, that’s


    understandable.”


    I have to look away, and for the first time in my adult life, I feel


    my eyes growing wet with tears.


    Goddamn it.


    I haven’t cried since the day I found out Alpha Roberts brutally murdered my sister.


    “My mate…” I start, then have to pause when my voicees out so rough, it’s barely a growl. “She


    didn’t make it.”