"Ana! Ana! You’re back!" Alex crowed, his excitement utterly undampened by her somber demeanor as he squirmed in her embrace.

"Alex, hi," Anastasia whispered and hugged tightly, still wondering how could this boy love her even though she had been so mean to him most of his life.

Anastasia managed a watery chuckle, ruffling his tousled locks affectionately as she drank in the sight of her little brother/son - so full of innocent joy and wonder, unburdened by the complexities that weighed so heavily on her own heart. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

With a subtle look of understanding passing between them, her parents herded the rest of the curious pack away, allowing Anastasia a moment of solitude to gather herself before facing the onslaught of well-meaning questions.

Clutching Alex’s small hand tightly in her own, she made her way to her room.

"I’ll see you soon, Alex," she murmured, pressing a kiss to Alex’s brow before gently shooing him from her room.

Alone at last, Anastasia allowed the weight of her turmoil and heartache to settle over her once more like a suffocating shroud...

Shedding her travel-stained clothes, she allowed the garments to puddle forgotten on the floor as she padded to her bathroom.

Stepping under the freezing spray, Anastasia shuddered as the icy deluge sluiced over her weary frame.

She needed cold water.

It makes her relax.

She barely registered the intense chill as it raked over her taut muscles and feverish skin.

All she could focus on was the profound, bone-deep exhaustion and emptiness that consumed her utterly in that moment.

Hot, stinging tears mingled with the water sluicing down her face as she finally surrendered to the torrent of emotions battering her from all sides.

Her shoulders hunched, sobs racking her body as everything she had bottled up in the wake of her wrenching goodbye with Liam came crashing down around her in a maelstrom of heartache and turmoil.

How could she bear being parted from him - from either of them?

Already it felt like a piece of her very soul had been ripped away, leaving a bloody, ragged hollow in its wake.

Worst still was the agonizing uncertainty of when or if that wounding void could ever be mended.

Liam had been right - the brutal, possessive bonds she shared with each of her fated mates was an unstoppable force, obliterating all else in its wake.

Legs trembling, chest heaving with ragged gasps, Anastasia could no longer remain upright.

She crumpled to the unforgiving floor of the shower, cold tears of anguish and torment streaming down her ashen cheeks as she surrendered utterly to her broken heart.

She has never felt so vulnerable and broken.

But she isn’t built of steel, she can only take so much until she explodes just like now.

_________

The dank, musty air of the dungeon hung heavy, the blackness nearly absolute but for a few flickering torches casting their fitful glow.

In the deepest recesses of the large cell, a hulking figure shifted in the gloom Cobra’s powerful frame barely contained by the enchanted restraints binding him.

"You don’t smell like him," Cobra rumbled, his deep baritone reverberating through the still air. "That’s a first."

Anastasia felt her throat tighten painfully at his observation as she stepped further into the cell.

"He...hasn’t forgiven me yet," she replied, struggling to keep her tone even. "And he found out about me meeting you. He didn’t take it well. He still needs time to process and accept all this. That is why I came back alone."

She talked while entering the cell.

A rasping chuckle echoed from the shadows.

"You have been trying to make him forgive you for a month and he still hasn’t considered it?" Cobra’s mocking amusement grated on her raw nerves.

"What I did to him isn’t easy to forgive," Anastasia said tightly, wrapping her arms around herself, yearning to hug Cobra, but holding herself back because the latter is still bitter about the fact that she wanted both of her mates.

"That freak should be grateful a woman like you is even interested in him," Cobra snarled with sudden venom.

"COBRA!" She wheeled on him, all pretense of composure shattered as she glared at him with blazing eyes. "Do not...do not ever call him that. Understood?"

His answering growl vibrated the very stones beneath their feet. "No, it’s not understood. I’m not insulting him, I’m stating facts. In what world are a half-blooded alpha and half-omega considered normal? Not normal equals freak."

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Anastasia sighed heavily. "I’m taking you out of these dungeons tomorrow."

The words hung in the air for a beat before Cobra’s cold chuckle broke the tense silence.

"If you free me from here, I will hunt down your freaky omega mate and slit his throat with my claws. Then I’ll feed his body to my wolf."

The image he painted was viscerally gruesome - Liam’s still form, glassy eyes frozen open in death as Cobra’s massive jaws closed around his savaged throat.

Crimson arterial spray arced through the air as wicked talons tore into soft, vulnerable flesh...

Anastasia swallowed hard against the sudden surge of nausea.

"Good," she said, keeping her tone carefully calm. "That’s why I’ve reserved a room for you at the wolf clinic."

The wolf clinic is basically a mental hospital for the werewolves that have a hard time controlling themselves or controlling their inner wolf.

Cobra’s eyes, mere shadows in the gloom, flared with sudden rage. "What?"

"You need to learn to control your wolf and your thoughts," she replied evenly. "They’ll help you do that at the clinic."

"I’m not going," he snarled, straining fruitlessly against his bonds.

Quick as a striking viper, Anastasia lashed out.

She slammed Cobra’s hulking frame against the unforgiving stone wall.

Her hand locked around his jaw in a vise-like grip, sharp claws pricking the skin in a clear threat.

"You do not have a choice, Cobra." she hissed, her voice laced with a dangerous undertone. "If you don’t learn to control yourself, there will be no us."

For a long moment, Cobra simply glared at her in seething silence.

Then, slowly, an eerie grin stretched across his features.

"Anastasia, my love," he purred in a tone dripping with false sweetness. "Remember that you and the Eastern pack only attacked one of my fifty other packhouses. I still have forty-nine packs waiting for the slightest signal from me to kill everyone. You have no idea how far I can go to have you for myself."

His smile widened, all teeth and cruel promise. "When I said I could hunt down an entire pack for you, I meant it. And that pack could easily be yours. No one will stand between us - I’ll kill every breathing soul that tries to keep us apart."

The vicious declaration hung in the air like a toxic miasma.

Anastasia felt her fury slowly ebb, leaving only bone-deep weariness in its wake.

Her eyes faded back to their natural hue as her claws retracted.

With a soft, defeated sigh, her forehead came to rest against Cobra’s unyielding shoulder.

Cobra’s grin widened triumphantly as he lifted a heavy hand to stroke her hair in a possessive caress.

But then he froze, his body going utterly still once more.

"Cobra, I love you," Anastasia murmured, the words seeming to echo endlessly in the cavernous space.

He stared at her, utterly stunned. "What?"

A low, bitter chuckle tumbled from her lips. "I love you, Cobra. I really do...I want you in my life so badly."

Her voice cracked with a thousand hair-thin fractures as tears began to swim in her eyes. "I’m just so tired. I’m f-fucking tired of thinking I can’t sleep at night knowing you and Liam are so far away...even when you’re close, you both feel so distant. I’m tired. Genuinely tired of everything."

Cobra could only gape at her in shock, his eyes wide and uncomprehending as fat tears rolled unchecked down her ashen cheeks.

"I just want to be happy with the both of you," Anastasia sobbed brokenly, sagging against him as if her strings had been abruptly cut.

"Like any other fated mates. But it’s so complicated...I keep ending up at a dead end every time I think I’ve found a solution."

Covering her face with trembling hands, she wept - harsh, gulping sounds torn from the depths of her anguished soul.

Cobra’s hands began to shake violently at the sight, his arrogant composure cracking.

"No...no, please Anastasia, don’t cry," he pleaded hoarsely. "I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I’ll do anything you ask, just...please, don’t cry. Put the blame on me, not yourself. Blame me, my love just don’t cry. I’m sorry"

With shaking fingers, he gently pulled her hands away from her face, tear-streaked face, cradling it between his calloused palms.

"I’m terribly sorry," Cobra rasped, swiping the pad of his thumb over the glistening tracks of her sorrow. "I love you too - more than anything, more than myself. More than the very air that keeps me alive."

One broad hand cupped the back of her head as he pressed his forehead to hers, his gravelly voice taking on a soothing lilt as he continued murmuring endearments and reassurances.

"Okay...okay, I’ll go to this clinic like you’ve asked," he vowed fervently. "Anything you want, my love, just please don’t cry anymore. I’m sorry for saying that. I will do anything."

With a gentleness starkly at odds with his brutish size, Cobra pulled Anastasia into a bone-crushing embrace, cradling her form against his frame as he rocked them slowly back and forth.

His deep rumbles of entreaty and apology vibrated through them both as he stroked her hair, and pressed fervent kisses to her forehead.

"I’m here...I’m here, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make you happy." he rasped into the crown of her head. "I promise you, Anastasia. I promise... I love you so much, my love."