Shattered Bonds

Shattered Bonds

The woods were quiet, but inside Evandra, there was only screaming.

Each step was agony, her lungs still raw from sobbing, her body trembling as though every bone in her had cracked and splintered. The mate bond’s severing left her hollow, yet heavy—an emptiness that pressed against her chest until she could hardly breathe. She stumbled over roots and branches, shredded pieces of fabric from her night gown torn and dull beneath the silver wash of moonlight.

She pressed a hand to her chest as if she could hold the bond there, keep it from unraveling further, but it was gone. He had ripped it away.

Divorce.

Another mate.

An heir already on the way.

The words repeated like a curse in her head, over and over until she wanted to tear her own mind apart just to silence them.

She thought of their early days—of laughter in the training yard, of stolen kisses in the pack house gardens, of the way he had once looked at her like she was the only star in his sky. She remembered nights tangled in furs, whispered promises, his breath warm against her ear as he told her she was his everything. My Eva, he used to call her.

But as she replayed them now, she saw what she had refused to see before: the hardness in his jaw when another Luna showed off her children. The silence whenever she suggested they might try another healer, another method, another desperate hope. The way his eyes would drift away from hers whenever she whispered that their love was enough, even without an heir.

It wasn’t enough for him.

Her happiness had blinded her. She had clung to it, nurtured it, while his grew thin and bitter beneath the weight of expectation. She had mistaken his duty for devotion.

Now she had nothing. No pack. No family. Her parents had been buried years ago, taken by rogues before they could see her crowned as Luna. There was no home waiting for her, no ally to run to. Approaching another pack’s territory would be a death sentence. The Luna of a rival pack showing up at their doorstep could rain war down upon them. Or they could mark her as a trespasser—a rogue—and rogues were killed on sight.

She was utterly alone.

Her knees buckled, and she dropped to the forest floor. The earth was cold and damp beneath her palms. A sob wracked her chest, but it came out silent, dry, her body already exhausted from grief. She curled forward, pressing her forehead to the mossy ground, letting the moon bear witness to her ruin.

I was your Luna.

I gave you everything.

I gave our pack everything.

And you threw me away.

The thought echoed into the darkness until even her tears could no longer come as she walked further and further away from her home of the last 4 years.

Jalen

Very many miles behind her, in the mansion of the Pearl Pack, Jalen sat in his office with the lights off. The pain of rejection still burned through his veins, a punishment from the goddess herself for severing what was meant to be eternal. He pressed a hand to his chest, grimacing at the ache that would not fade.

He told himself it was the right decision. An Alpha needed an heir. The pack deserved a future leader, not years of waiting and disappointment. Evandra had failed him in that, and he could not fail his people in return.

And yet…

He remembered the way she had looked at him last night at the gala, her arm slipping through his, her body leaning into his as though he was her anchor. He remembered her laughter when they first ran together as wolves, her hair streaming wild behind her, her joy so fierce it had stolen his breath. He remembered the way she used to curl against him in sleep, whispering dreams she thought he didn’t hear. My Eva. My Luna.

The memories twisted in his gut. For a moment, he almost wished he could call her back, take back the words, undo what had been done.

But then the sharper truth returned: she could not give him what the pack needed. What he needed.

Still, as the pain of their severed bond throbbed in his chest, Jalen wondered if the goddess would forgive him… or if he had just cursed himself to live with an emptiness no heir could ever fill.