Empty bonds

Lila's POV

The air almost felt cold against my newly blushed skin while I drunkenly staggered on the way home. A step away from the club, a deep shame sank heavier into my heart-cold darkness until it pressed its invisible weight upon my chest like the iron grip of death itself.

Goodbyes were not said. I left some stranger to sleep in the room with dim lights playing upon him. I couldn't even recall his name, and may be that is for the better. I did not even want to remember myself tonight.

By now, reaching the small family house on the pack's quieter side, the moon was even lower. Tremors washed over me as I lifted my trembling hands to the door,gently knocking on the door till someone came to open it.

“Who is that?" A voice asked as the door creaked open . It was my mother, Caroline Hayes in a robe; her auburn-haired-blowing disheveled movement-bestowed upon her deep lines of worry. The warm embrace of the lamp shone over me and spilled its light on the traces of tears across my face, the tangled state of my attire, and the tremor in my body.

"Moon Goddess!" she whispered, cupping a hand to her mouth. "What happened to you?"

Words would not come; my throat had blocked off, leaving me shaking and helpless.

"Mother?" Another voice filtered through from behind her now-Sofia, my sister, who stepped up beside her. "Lila?"

Her voice cracked the silence within; I rolled unsteadily, almost collapsing against the wall as I blurted, "He...Ethan-he..."

Mum caught me just before I crumpled. "Slow down, child. Breathe. What did he do?"

Gripping onto her robe, somehow this inarticulate, desperate string of words slipped out: "He rejected me. He wasn't enough. He found someone else. He broke the bond."

Sofia smothered her mouth with her hand. "No..."

Just as I finished saying it, the dam burst. I told them everything: how Ethan had sulked that I was busy, unworthy. How he had called me a burden, an omega. How he had stood with Marissa, laughing at me while she mocked me, and rejected me openly. I stammered each painful syllable, letting it all pour out.

By the time I finished, my mother was colorless in the face and had her arms clutched around me. "That bastard," she murmured. "Why would he do a thing like that?"

But not Sofia. She was standing up in a rage, fists clenched, fire blazing in her eyes. "I have always known it---Ethan is nothing but a coward."

I tried to caution her, "Sofi..." But she cut me off with a sharp shake of her head.

She hissed. "Lila, he dared to turn the blame on you? Told you it was your fault, for working too much? For being the one carrying both this family and him while he enjoyed the perks of being a so-called male who provides for his mate? Everyone in this fucking pack knows you work hard. That low-life has no right to cheat on you because you were busy working out there to save his ass, feed his fucking face! He has no right whatsoever."

Her words slapped me; they did not hurt but instead landed upon the last fragile memory of Ethan that I continued to clutch onto.

Another press came from Sofia's low-pitched, even more furious voice. "You begged him, didn't you? You begged him to stay, to give you a chance."

My lips trembled. "I told him I would take a step back." That I could make time for him. That I would—"

"—sacrifice the last thing you have for yourself," she cut in. "And what did he say?"

I swallowed hard. "That even if I quit work, I'd still be an omega. That he couldn't build a life with an omega. That I'd be a burden."

My mother gasped softly, and Sofia shook her head in disgust: "But it was alright for him to eat your food without a care, to wear clothes paid for by you, to live off your hard work? Tell me, Lila-what sort of male lets his mate feed him and then dares to sneer at her for being 'too independent'?"

Her words dug deep into me, yet I knew she was right.

Sofia continued, her pale eyes sharp. "He was weak. Too weak to be a proper mate. Too weak to live up to being alongside a strong woman. That was why he ran to Marissa-he wanted someone superficial, someone to nurse his ego."

Mum flashed a warning look, but Sofia didn't care. Kneeling beside me, she clasped my hands. "You listen to me, Lila. Not a single tear you shed was worth Ethan. He is the one that should be ashamed, not you."

Sure, her consolation provoked even further hurt. The mark on my neck started to hurt again, felt like I was being pinched by numerous fingers. I held my palm against it, but mother held my hand and moved it from my neck.

Sofia's gaze followed the movement. "Lila... your mark."

I froze. "What about it?"

She leaned forward and tucked my loose hair behind. Her fingers hovered above my skin, her eyes wide. "It's gone! Completely!"

I couldn't breathe. "Gone?"

She nodded. "I don't see anything. Not even a scar. It's like it was never there."

A hollow cold spread in me. No mark. No bond.

My mother squeezed me harder. "That means he has really severed it."

My eyes began burning again. "Then I'm nothing-just an omega without a mate."

"No," Sofia hissed, giving my hand a squeeze. "You are still you. His choice doesn't define your worth."

I shook my head.

Sofia hesitated, searching my face with her pale eyes. Then softly, almost as if she were afraid of the answer, she asked:

"Do you think... you will get another mate tomorrow? At the ceremony?"