At three in the morning, I walked into a discreet werewolf clinic.

The air smelled thick with antiseptic.

Dr. Harrison's face paled when he saw me. "Chloe, are you sure?" he asked. "That's a pure Alpha bloodline. That would be the heir to the Sterling pack. Besides, a high concentration of silver solution will put your body and soul through hell."

I signed the papers.

Chloe Bennett.

Not Sterling.

"Do it," I said. "Now."

Liquid silver. To a werewolf, it's molten lava. I was going to use it to burn away the final thread of the bond between Lucian and me.

The doctor was silent for a long time. Finally, he produced a metal syringe filled with a cloudy, silver-gray liquid.

"This is the highest purity silver nitrate," he said, his voice trembling. "Once it enters your veins, your wolf will go insane. This could burn you from the inside out."

I held out my arm and watched the needle pierce my skin.

Five seconds later, hell began.

I curled up on the bed, my hands gripping the sheets so tightly my nails broke. The silver liquid flowed through me like acid. My veins felt like they were boiling, and a searing pain ripped through my abdomen, as if a red-hot poker was being twisted in my gut.

But the pain in my wolf was worse.

She screamed in my head, "No! That's our pup! The Alpha's bloodline! The silver is killing him!"

I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood.

In the deepest part of my consciousness, I spoke to my wolf with chilling calm. "It's Lucian's child too. As long as we keep it, we will always be slaves to that man. It has to end."

My wolf shrieked in protest, but the silver solution was mercilessly eroding her strength. Her voice grew weaker, finally fading into a desperate sigh before she retreated into the deepest corner of my soul.

She was asleep.

And she might never wake up.