“Thank you. It won’t be easy, but she needs to hear it from you.”
I watched him go. He had promised to talk to Liza, but there was something else hidden beneath the surface. A secret he didn’t want to share. I had a feeling our conversation wasn’t quite finished.
“Wait.”
He stopped and looked over his shoulder.
“You said you have one more thing to handle.” Comprehension dawned on me. “Sabrina?” I stared at Liam, concern and disbelief swirling.
He sighed heavily, his expression clouded with uncertainty. “Yeah, it’s Sabrina.” He rolled his shoulders back. “I’m going to have to break our bond. I’m not even sure how it happened, but I need to reject her. That’s how it works with us wolves, so I’m hoping it’ll be as easy as that for a human, too.”
“Are you sure about this?” From what I’d heard, breaking a bond was painful, like tearing apart one’s own soul.
Liam nodded. “I’m a mob boss, Ty. The last thing I need is a mate just so people can put a target on her back.” His words were heavy with a sense of duty, but I detected the pain lurking beneath them. Losing a mate was not something anyone took lightly, especially not an alpha wolf like Liam.
As much as I wanted to support him, I worried about Sabrina’s wellbeing. She was Liza’s best friend. My mate saw her as a sister. I had to ask the question that had been nagging me ever since I’d learned about their bond. “What if rejecting her causes more harm than good?”
“Then, I’ll deal with it,” Liam answered firmly. “But I can’t risk her life by staying connected to her. Not when the stakes are this high.”
I understood the logic in his decision, but I still ached for both him and Sabrina. It wasn’t a choice being made out of love or desire but rather cold necessity. “I trust you, Liam. Just be careful. Sabrina’s important to Liza, and I don’t want either of them hurt.”
Liam nodded, his face grave. “I’ll do everything I can to make this as painless as possible for her. For both of them.”
I foundLiza in the dimly lit kitchen, staring blankly at a row of gleaming knives on the wall. Even from several feet away, I could sense that her usual strong aura had evaporated.
“Hey,” I said softly, making my way over to her. “Everyone’s gone now. You okay?”
Liza blinked, snapping back to reality, and gave me a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just… exhausted, I guess.”
I frowned. There was more to it than that. Her exhaustion wasn’t just physical, it wore on her emotionally as well, as if she were trying to hold back a storm within her—one that threatened to break free at any moment.
“Hey,” I said softly, putting my arm around her waist. “You should get some rest. We’ve all been pushing ourselves too hard lately.”
She gave me a wan smile. “It’s just been a lot, you know? Everything that’s happened, everything we’re still dealing with…” She trailed off, but I understood what she meant. The constant battles and threats, the looming specter of Castro… it was enough to break anyone down. Through it all, Liza had shown a strength and resilience that awed me.
“I get it,” I squeezed her hand gently. “But we’ve come a long way, and things are starting to look up. The pack is safe, and that’s what matters most.”
Liza shrugged out of my grasp and drifted to the wall. Her eyes were distant and her body language guarded. She had said she was relieved, but something about her didn’t sit right with me. It was as if a veil had been drawn over her emotions, and I couldn’t quite see through it.
“You sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, Ty, I’m fine. You should focus on finding Castro. Like you said, this won’t be over until he’s dead.”
Her words gave me pause. There was an undercurrent of something in her tone. Fear? Dread? I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. My wolf stirred within me, urging me to find out what was wrong with our mate. I trusted Liza, but she sometimes kept things to herself when she thought it would protect others.
I watched her muscles tense as she crossed the room, her slender fingers drumming against her thigh in a nervous rhythm. “I need to keep up with my training,” she declared, her voice steady, despite the unease that vibrated beneath the surface. “I’ll go find Liam and arrange a time we can spar.”
“Actually,” I said hesitantly. “Liam left to speak with Sabrina.”
Her steps faltered, and she whirled around to face me, the color draining from her face. “What? When?”
“Right after our meeting.” I tried to gauge her reaction. “He wanted to talk to her about something.”
The tremor of panic that rippled through Liza hit me like a tidal wave, and I instinctively braced myself for whatever was coming next. Instead of an outburst or a flood of tears, the room itself responded to her distress. The faint sound of glass tinkling filled the air as the windows quivered in their frames.
“What’s going on, Liza?” I said, my own anxiety heightening as I stepped closer to her, desperate to help in any way I could.
Her eyes locked onto mine, but I wasn’t sure she saw me through the shadows of fear. “Castro called me,” she whispered so softly I barely heard her, as if saying his name any louder might summon him. “He has Sabrina.”
