Forbidden Bond

CHAPTER ONE

SHANE'S POV

The sun was as vengeful as ever, making beads of sweat drop down my arms as I toiled on the farmlands.

My back ached, and my skin burned. As terrible as these conditions felt, I didn’t feel bad for myself at all. My attention was on my younger sister, who had been tilling the ground beside me since dawn that morning without a single complaint.

I watched as she raised her spade, planting it deep into the soil, digging even deeper each time.

She shouldn’t have to work this hard, not with me here.

But without her here, I wasn’t going to be able to raise enough to take care of our needs, especially with our youngest sister at home who needed medicine frequently.

“You’re gonna keep staring at me?” she asked, without breaking her focus.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I replied, standing up to look at her. “I can find another job to take care of us–”

“You will never find another job that would be less hard than Don Simon’s.” she retorted, turning to look at me.

Her fair skin had long tanned under overexposure to the sun, and her once soft hands were now filled with calluses.

“Still, I don’t want you to keep doing such harsh labour. You deserve better. Shopping with your friends-“

“Who’d be in the upper caste….We are Omegas, Shane,” Nina reminded me calmly. “We don’t deserve any of that.”

I sighed softly, knowing that she was right. Omegas were the lowest caste in our pack, used for labouring in the fields or working as servants.

Every day was a harsh reality of the fact that we didn’t deserve to even have-

“Do I pay you to slouch around?” Don Simon, the farm head shouted from behind me.

The crack of leather whipped through the air and landed on my back suddenly. I dropped to my knees, feeling pain explode across my skin.

“Don’t you dare.”

Nina’s fists clenched around her spade immediately, feeling pained at the injustice.

I gave her a signal to stay silent.

Don Simon sneered. “Look at you fools, pathetic Omegas. What were you planning to do? Make her attack me?”

Before I could respond, the whip landed on my back again.

“Let me remind you that you are both weak omegas, even if you both tried, you wouldn’t last a second against me.”

His words were cruel but true.

“Now get back to work!” he instructed, walking away with an amused smile on his face.

Nina ran to where I was to help me back up.

“We can’t keep working for him,” she whispered as soon as he was out of earshot, still glaring at him.

“He is the only one who pays us enough to survive,” I said, stumbling to my feet. “Without this farm, we would starve.”

Nina sighed, resignation settling in her chest.

She stayed silent, tilling the soil until it was time for our break. After the break, we were split into separate sections.

I worked with the men in harvest while Nina joined the women in planting.

The sun was going down when a blood-curdling scream echoed from down the fields.

We all paused immediately, startled by the sound.

“What are you doing? Go back to work!” One of our supervisors instructed, raising his whip.

I lowered my head immediately, trying to fight the growing sense of unease in my chest.

I grabbed my basket closer, continued to gather the harvest when a group of laborers ran towards us.

“What is going on?” The supervisor shouted angrily. “Why did you all leave your duties?”

“Sir, there—there is an emergency,” one of the women stammered.

“Someone has been hurt,” another woman added, her hands trembling in panic.

I exchanged looks with the other labourers wondering what was wrong.

“And so… why are you here?” The supervisor didn't seem to care.

“Shane!” One of the women called my name and I froze, turning to her as the sense of unease in my chest grew even stronger.

“It is Nina, she has been hurt,” the woman said with tears in her eyes.

My heart dropped.

I didn't even wait to be excused by the supervisor, I just ran.

I ran until I found her down the field, surrounded by other workers.

She lay motionless on the ground, her arms and legs were filled with wounds, and her body was bleeding all over.

She had been whipped.

I fell to my knees in horror. “What happened to her?” I shouted, feeling rage fill my bones.

Don Simon stepped forward, his hands crossed as they held on to a blood-stained whip.

“She was being disrespectful, so I had to teach her the manners that your dead parents can't teach her,” he said proudly, his eyes taunting me, as if he was waiting for me to do something

As if he wanted me to retaliate so he could strike me down.

“You beat her?” I said, my voice breaking.

“Of course I did,” Don Simon droned on. “You Omegas like to push me to my limits, she deserved to be punished. In fact, anyone who acts foolishly would be flogged even worse.” He mocked walking away.

Tears blurred my eyes as I carried her into my arms.

She was barely breathing.

“She needs the doctor,” I begged desperately, looking around.

One of the workers gave me a pitiful look. “You know that you can't afford him.”

Another turned away. “Let it go.”

“Don't feel too bad, it will be one less mouth to feed,” one of the women added.

Bile formed in my throat.

How could I just let Nina die?

She wasn't even supposed to work on the farms in the first place.

This was all my fault.

Her eyes fluttered open. “Shane,” she whispered weakly. “It’s okay.”

It wasn’t.

I had stayed silent when our parents died. I had swallowed everything.

But I wouldn’t swallow this.

I carried Nina away with me, ignoring the others, until we were out of the fields,

I found a closed shed and carried her inside quickly.

“Stay with me, okay?” I begged, placing her on the floor.

Closing my eyes, I took her hands in mine.

I knew I shouldn't be doing this, but I had no other choice.

I had lost so much already and I wasn't losing Nina this time.

I felt the magic come alive in my bones like fire—natural, forbidden, desperate.

I hadn't summoned a spell in so long, especially since—

I could feel light spread beneath my skin and through hers.

“Goddess of the moon, let her wounds be undone, bring back the broken, make her whole as one.”

As I said the spell, I stepped back, watching as her wounds began to close one by one, a golden thread stitching her scars as if they had never been there in the first place.

Nina gasped as she regained consciousness.

Her hands touched her body desperately, shock filling her features.

“I thought I was going to die, why didn’t you let me die—” she paused, the surprise on her face turning to horror as she looked behind me.

I followed her gaze only to find Don Simon standing in front of the shed with a frightened look in his eyes.

“Magic!” He screamed.

“You are one of them,” he pointed a trembling finger at me. “You are a magic user.”

“Magic!”

Fear surged through me immediately.

In the Ravenclaw pack, the only thing worse than an Omega was a magic user.

Without thinking, I grabbed him by the arm.

“Run, now!”

“Run!”