---- Chapter 6 The fact that we had severed our bond was no secret. It had caused a huge stir at the time, yet my family had never contacted me. After the product launch, as the crowd began to thin, I unexpectedly ran into a familiar figure-my mother. The shadow of my childhood. I knew that sharp, cutting need for control in her eyes all too well. It held the deepest pain of my entire life. "Lyra! You've grown up, have you? You think you can defy me now?! Severing your mate bond is a huge deal. Who gave you permission to make a decision like that?!" Her scent coiled around me like a venomous snake, the pressure of her presence making the air heavy. ---- "Now! You will come back with me immediately! While Eric is still willing to have you, you will go and re-mate with him!" Sitting in the coffee shop, listening to her words, my throat closed up. I was speechless. My wolf snarled in my chest, no longer willing to back down. She had traveled all this way just to drag me back onto the path she had paved for me. My whole life, if she decided a path was "right," she would push me onto it without any discussion. My wishes, my feelings-they were nothing in the face of the family blueprint she had so carefully constructed. My heart was completely cold. I looked into her eyes and, for the first time, said what I truly thought. ---- "Tam your daughter. But in all these years, have you ever, even once, considered my feelings?" "From what clothes I wore, to what school I attended, even to who I would be mated to... every single step of my life was dictated by you. I was like a puppet with no emotions. I didn't even have a say in the person I was supposed to spend my life with." "Ten years! Did you ever once care what kind of life I was living in his pack, or if I was suffering? If no one was going to love me, then I had to learn to love myself." "The family's status no longer needs my pathetic mate bond to support it. As for Eric..." I paused, letting out a cold, self-mocking laugh. "His first love, the one he pined for for over a decade, is back. Why should I go back to being an eyesore, just to be despised?" "This time, I won't listen to you anymore." My wolf threw her head back and howled in my heart, declaring her freedom.