I Paid a Dark Magician to Erase My Alpha Brother’s Mating Bond

Part 1

I paid a dark magician to erase my Alpha brother’s mating bond.

My brother, Greg, has always carried the weight of our pack’s survival on his shoulders.

Rebuilding our territory from the ashes took our entire youth.

Memories of rogue wolves tearing our mother apart while our father was away still haunt the edges of my vision.

That night burned a lesson into my soul.

Surviving in this world requires absolute strength.

Guarding my brother’s reign became the sole purpose of my existence.

Then Greg brought Megan into the den.

During her first hunting run, a protruding root sent her tumbling face-first into the dirt.

Her trembling fingers couldn’t even draw a hunting bow without dropping the arrow.

Yet my brother is cursed with an insatiable need to play the savior for every stray.

He draped his winter cloak over her shivering shoulders that very first night.

Declaring her his official mate was a mistake waiting to happen.

Watching him tether our pack’s future to someone who bolted at the sound of a snapping twig made my jaw ache.

A Luna must stand tall beside her Alpha during a siege.

Letting her drag our hard-won legacy into the mud was completely out of the question.

Desperation drove me to seek out a hidden magic shop located deep in the city’s underbelly.

The scent of burning sage and ancient dust hit my lungs as I pushed through the door.

A scowling girl named Brenda wiped down the counter with deliberate strokes.

Demanding an immediate audience with the elusive magician earned me a slow stare.

Craig sat in the dim back room, lazily stacking worn playing cards into a leaning tower.

Power radiated from his disheveled frame in waves that made the hair on my arms stand up.

Severing a true mating bond required an impossibly steep price.

He promised to take whatever mattered most to me in exchange for his services.

Visions of handing over the keys to my vintage car flashed briefly through my mind.

Nodding in agreement felt like tossing a coin into a bottomless well.

Speeding back to the remote pack lands, I expected to find an empty spot in my garage.

The polished hood of my car reflected the evening moonlight exactly where I left it.

Inside the bustling den, Megan sat alone on the wrap-around porch, sipping herbal tea with a serene smile.

Greg strode right past her without the slightest pause in his step.

The tether connecting their souls had been severed by Craig’s magic.

Securing our pack’s future tasted like ash on my tongue.

Everything spiraled out of control when Greg arranged for Megan to mate with a rival wolf named Brian.

Greg asked me to act as her chaperone during the courting period to ensure her safe departure.

Those mandatory daily drives to her meetings quickly morphed into an agonizing form of torture.

She sat in the passenger seat of my truck, thanking me for giving her a chance to stay.

Her earnest words twisted the knife already buried in my gut.

My vision blurred with violent static the moment Brian yanked her by the wrist to assert his dominance.

She simply lowered her eyes to the dirt and offered him a polite nod of submission.

My claws carved gouges into the steering wheel of my truck on the drive home.

Restful sleep became a distant memory.

Elaborate meals turned to dry ash in my mouth.

I offered to train her personally as a desperate excuse to keep her close to me.

We spent endless hours circling each other in the shadowy pine forest.

Her chest heaved as she pushed her limits just to earn a fleeting nod of my approval.

Yesterday, pent-up frustration finally boiled over, and I snapped at her to stop trying to please everyone else.

When she choked back a sob about loving someone she could never have, my claws reflexively gouged the nearest pine trunk, the magician’s insidious price finally dawning on me—she still meant Greg.

Craig hadn’t touched my car, my wealth, or my status within the pack hierarchy.

He had stolen my fear.

For my entire life, the prospect of losing my family dictated my every move.

Caution had always kept my darker impulses firmly locked away in a mental cage.

Without that grounding anchor of dread, the thick walls around my heart crumbled into dust.

I didn’t break her sacred bond with my brother to protect the pack from a weak Luna.

I broke it because watching another man claim her made me want to burn the entire world down.

Tomorrow, she leaves with Brian forever.

Stripped entirely of my fear, I am standing on the absolute precipice of an unforgivable betrayal.