Broken Bonds Audiobook Novels & Stories

he said quietly, “you can’t run from it anymore.” She turned away, her voice barely steady. “Watch me.” Later that night, when the world finally went quiet, Aurora stood alone in her suite, looking at her image in the mirror. Her phone buzzed on the table. A message. She picked it up, expecting Damon or a writer. But it was neither. The author was unknown. And the message made her blood run cold: You think the bond snapping back is the worst thing that could happen? Wait until he finds out who broke it three years ago.

“Do you even understand what that means? The consequences—” “I don’t care.” Three words. Cold. Final. Merciless. Something inside me cracked. Not just my heart. Something deeper. Something that would never be whole again. The bond, fragile and newly formed, began to tear apart. I felt it—felt every thread snap, every connection burn as it was ripped away from my soul. A scream built in my throat, but I swallowed it down. I wouldn’t give them that. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing me shatter completely.

The boom of the bond's disintegration masked Darius's distant voice. I scratched at the floor, attempting to grasp onto something. The light from the moonstone flickered slightly, unable to bear the stress. Then the agony vanished as abruptly as it had started. When I opened my eyes, I was back in the grove with Darius cradling me. However, something had changed. We were barely connected, a thin thread that may break at any time. "Aria," Darius said in a quivering voice. "What's going on?" Tears were running down my cheeks as I glanced up at him. "The bond is rupturing."

And then— He opened his eyes. Slowly. Theo stepped forward immediately. “What is it?” he asked. Capsin did not answer right away. He seemed to be choosing his words carefully, which in itself was enough to make Theo’s chest tighten slightly. Finally, Capsin spoke. “The bond is still there,” he said. Theo froze. For a fraction of a second, something like relief tried to surface. But Capsin continued before it could settle. “It is not broken.” The relief faded immediately. Theo’s voice dropped.

I gasped and pressed my hand against the spot. Innocent people were dying. Mates who loved each other, who'd done nothing wrong except have the bad luck to be bonded after I shattered mine. Their bonds were snapping because of me. Because I'd run that morning in college. Because Malachi had rejected me in the forest. Because neither of us had been brave enough to do this right. "Can we fix it?" I asked. Silence again. "Nyx. Can we fix it?" *I don't know. Maybe. If you and Malachi complete the bond properly before he dies. If you repair what was broken. But even then—* She hesitated. *Even then, the damage might be too great. The ripples might continue spreading.*

He whispered the words so lowly they were barely audible. I saw his body stiffen as the pain of the bond breaking wracked through him. It lasted all of a minute before he was back to being a slumped, depressed mess. His eyes wouldn't meet mine, but it wasn't because he didn't want me in his head. It was more like he just didn't have any fight left in him. I nodded at Manny to be ready as my next plan went into motion. “Let the world know it was your voice making those noises in that clip.”

The last solid piece of the bond did not fray this time. It tore. One moment I could still feel the thin, stubborn thread that connected me to Kael, the only part of the link that had survived the core’s long assault. The next moment that thread stretched past its limit and split. A cold, hollow silence rushed into the space where his presence had lived for so long. It was not the gradual quieting of earlier cycles. It was sudden, clean, and absolute. Kael made a sound I had never heard from him before.

I couldn't stop thinking about how Jack called me a slut and how Aubrey just completely left me for dead out there. It’s not like any of this was really even my fault. After what felt like hours of more crying, I finally managed to fall asleep. ~3 hours later~ The sound of something banging against my window catches me by surprise, having me immediately jolt awake as fear begins to engulf me. What the fuck was that? I grow still against my sheets as the sound repeats itself, this time sounding more like a sequence of patterns. Is somebody here? Slowly, I make my way over to my window before slowly pushing open my blinds. Jack?!

I nodded, too exhausted to speak. Kade was beside me in an instant, checking me for injuries. "I'm okay," I managed. "You went into the circle. Alone. You could have died." "But I didn't." "This time." His voice was rough. "What about next time? What about the ritual to break all the bonds? You'll die then. Permanently." The reality crashed over me. I'd just broken thirty false bonds. By disrupting the ritual. Not through sacrifice. "Wait," I breathed. "Wait, if I could break these bonds by disrupting their magic—"

"The bonds were fine before." "Before you had three kids. Before you were splitting yourself between everyone. Maybe it's too much." "The bonds don't work like that." "How do you know? We're the only permanent triple bond in three hundred years. There's no manual." He might be right. Maybe this is the cost. Maybe maintaining three bonds while raising three kids is impossible. Maybe I'm breaking under the weight. Two weeks later I collapse. Just fall over. Mid-sentence. Gone. I wake up in bed. The healer hovering. All three mates looking terrified.