The bond was dying.

Marina felt it like ice spreading through her veins, felt the connection to Silvain growing thinner with each passing minute. Not because he was losing the trial but because something at the tear in reality was actively severing their link.

"No," she gasped, clutching Sera and Luna tighter. "He's still alive. I can feel him. But something's cutting us apart."

The First Wolf was testing the bonds themselves. Determining which connections were genuine, which were political, which were built on love versus convenience. And the mate bond between Marina and Silvain was being measured, weighed, judged.

Through the fraying connection, Marina caught flashes of what Silvain...