Realization
LUCIAN P.O.V.
The ache was unbearable. Three months had crawled by, each one more painful than the last, as if something was clawing at my chest from the inside. Rylan had warned me several times that breaking the mate bond was the deepest pain a werewolf could endure, but I hadn't listened. I thought I could ignore it, bury it beneath my own trauma, the grief, the hatred I bore for my parents for taking away my childhood; it was a bitterness I wore like armor. But the emptiness she left behind was different. It was both physical and emotional, and it was slowly driving me to the edge. Now I could understand a bit how my father felt, although that didn't excuse his actions.