Broken Bond

Neralda's POV

"Zara!"

"Sabastain," Zara whimpered. She reached up with a shaking, blood-stained hand and gripped his jacket. Tears streamed down her flawless face. "It hurts, Sabastain. my legs... I can't feel my legs."

"Don't move," Sabastain ordered, his voice cracking. The future Alpha was completely unraveling. "Kratvak! Get the pack doctor now! Have the hospital prepped!"

"On it!" Kratvak shouted, already barking orders into his mind link as he sprinted out the door.

I finally found my voice. I took a hesitant step down the marble stairs. "Sabastain... she jumped. I swear to the Goddess, she threw herself down..."

Sabastain’s head snapped up.

The look in his ice-blue eyes made my blood run entirely cold. It wasn't just anger. It was pure, unadulterated hatred. The mate bond between us was screaming, pulling at my chest, begging me to go to him, but his absolute disgust felt like a physical wall.

"Shut your mouth," he snarled, his fangs elongating.

"Sabastain, please!" I cried, running down the rest of the steps. "You have to believe me! She locked the door! She told me you would never want a wolfless mate, and then she just fell backward!"

"She pushed me," Zara choked out, letting out a heart-wrenching sob. She buried her face into Sabastain’s chest. "She was furious about the mate bond. She said... she said if she couldn't have you, neither could I."

"Liar!" I screamed, stepping forward. "Tell him the truth, Zara!"

In a flash of terrifying speed, Sabastain was on his feet. Before I could even blink, his large hand wrapped around my throat. He slammed me hard against the marble wall.

I gasped, clawing at his thick wrist. My feet dangled inches off the floor.

"Alpha!" Quinn yelled, rushing into the room with a team of medics. "The stretcher is here!"

Sabastain didn't look away from me. His grip tightened just enough to let me know he could snap my neck in a fraction of a second. The sparks of the mate bond danced frantically where his skin touched mine, but he ignored them with a horrifying amount of sheer willpower.

"You think I'm stupid?" Sabastain whispered, his breath hot against my face. "You think I'd believe the word of a jealous, useless freak over the woman who saved my life?"

"I... saved... you," I choked out, tears spilling over my cheeks.

“Are you that desperate?”

“You disgust me.’’

He dropped me.

I collapsed onto the carpet, gasping for air and coughing violently.

"Take my Luna to the hospital," Sabastain ordered the medics, his voice echoing with absolute authority. He turned his back on me completely. "And throw this piece of trash in the dungeons. No food. No water."

"Move," a guard barked, grabbing my arms and hauling me roughly to my feet.

Three days.

I sat in the freezing, pitch-black cellar beneath the packhouse for three days. The damp stone floor seeped into my bones. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Zara throwing herself backward, that wicked smile on her face.

She had won. The mate bond didn't matter. Sabastain’s ego and his misplaced loyalty to her were stronger than the Moon Goddess’s pairing.

The heavy iron door finally groaned open. Blinding light flooded the cell.

"Get up."

It was Kratvak. The Beta looked exhausted, dark circles bruised under his eyes. He didn't look at me with the usual indifference; he looked at me with deep, chilling pity.

I struggled to my feet, my muscles screaming in protest. "Kratvak... how is she?"

"Don't," he muttered, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the cell. "Just keep your mouth shut, Neralda. For your own sake."

He dragged me through the winding corridors of the packhouse, straight up to the Alpha's private floor. The tension in the air was suffocating. Every guard we passed glared at me with open hostility.

Kratvak pushed open the doors to Sabastain’s private office.

Sabastain sat behind his desk. He looked like a ghost. His suit was wrinkled, his hair a mess, and an empty bottle of scotch sat near his clenched fists. Martha sat on the leather sofa in the corner, sobbing quietly into a handkerchief.

"Alpha," Kratvak said formally. "I brought her."

Sabastain slowly raised his eyes. The hatred was still there, but now it was mixed with a terrifying emptiness.

"What happened?" I asked, my voice trembling. I looked at my stepmother. "Martha, please, what's going on?"

"Don't you dare speak to me, you monster!" Martha shrieked, jumping up from the couch. She lunged at me, slapping me hard across the face. "You ruined her! The doctor gave the final verdict this morning. Her spine is completely severed. My beautiful Zara is paralyzed from the waist down!"

The air left my lungs. Paralyzed.

"She'll never walk again," Martha sobbed, falling back onto the sofa. "She'll never run with the pack. She can't be Luna."

I looked at Sabastain. He was staring at me like I was a diseased animal.

"Sabastain," I whispered, taking a desperate step forward. "You know me. I grew up in this house. I would never do something like that. The mate bond..."

"Do not speak of the bond," Sabastain growled, his voice vibrating with Alpha command. It forced me to my knees instantly. "You are a mistake. A sick joke played by the Goddess."

"Alpha," Kratvak stepped in, his voice low. "The elders are demanding you reject her. Having a wolfless mate is bad enough, but one who crippled the pack's savior? They want her banished."

"No."

Sabastain stood up. He walked slowly around the desk, his towering frame casting a massive shadow over me. He smelled of scotch.

"No rejection?" Kratvak frowned in confusion. "But Sabastain, she's a threat. Just banish her and be done with it."

"Banishment is freedom, Kratvak," Sabastain said smoothly, stopping right in front of me. He crouched down, grabbing my chin and forcing me to look into his terrifyingly cold eyes. "I don't want her free. She took my Zara's legs. She took her future. If I reject her, she gets to move on. She gets to find another pack. She gets to be happy."

"What are you saying?" I whispered, fresh tears burning my eyes.

Sabastain's lips curled into a cruel smirk. "You stay here. You will work in the lowest quarters of this packhouse. You will be everyone's punching bag. And you will watch me love Zara every single day for the rest of your miserable life.”