The Bond He Broke Too Late

The taste of copper filled my mouth as consciousness crept back, bitter and metallic like old pennies. My eyelids felt weighted with lead, and when I finally managed to pry them open, harsh morning light stabbed through my skull like needles.

'Sage! Thank God.' Tessa's voice cut through the fog, sharp with relief and fury. 'You scared the hell out of me.'

I was lying on her familiar burgundy couch, wrapped in what felt like every blanket she owned. The scent of her lavender candles mixed with the medicinal smell of antiseptic, and I could taste the lingering bitterness of whatever she'd forced down my throat while I was unconscious.

'How long was I out?' My voice came out as a rasp.

'Six hours.' She perched on the edge of the coffee table, her green eyes blazing. 'You sent me your location at three AM with nothing but a pin drop and 'help.' I found you passed out in a snowbank outside your old house, Sage. A snowbank. You could have died.'

The memory hit me like a physical blow. The divorce papers. Declan's teeth tearing away our bond. Maren with her perfect concern and steaming mugs. I touched my neck instinctively, feeling the rough bandage Tessa had applied over the wound.

'You almost froze to death in a snowbank, and the first thing you say is 'he's gone'?' Tessa's voice cracked with emotion. 'Not 'thank you for saving my life' or 'I'm sorry for scaring you.' Just 'he's gone.'

I sat up slowly, the world tilting dangerously. 'Tessa, I—'

'No.' She held up a hand, tears threatening to spill. 'I've watched you disappear piece by piece for months. The headaches, the weight loss, the way you flinch when your phone rings. And now this.'

Rune stirred weakly in my mind, her presence barely a whisper compared to the strong voice she'd once been. 'The shadow,' she murmured. 'It's back.'

I closed my eyes, and there it was—the familiar darkness that had haunted my dreams for years. A figure just out of focus, always watching, always following. I'd had the same dream every night since I was sixteen: walking through an endless forest while something tracked my every step. When Declan and I bonded, the dreams had stopped. I'd thought it meant he was my destined mate, that the shadow had been waiting for him to fill that void.

Now I understood. The shadow wasn't waiting for Declan. It had been waiting for him to leave.

'He's really gone,' I whispered, more to myself than to Tessa.

Her phone buzzed insistently on the table. Then again. And again.

'Ignore it,' she said firmly, but her eyes flicked to the screen. 'It's just—'

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

With a frustrated growl, she grabbed the phone. Her face went white as she scrolled through the notifications.

'What is it?'

She turned the screen toward me reluctantly. News alerts flooded the display, each headline more vicious than the last:

'ALPHA DECLAN MILLS DISSOLVES BOND WITH LUNA SAGE ADLER'

'FROM LUNA TO NOBODY: SAGE ADLER'S SPECTACULAR FALL'

'SILVERPEAK'S FORMER LUNA SPOTTED WITH MYSTERY MAN'

I snatched the phone, scrolling through article after article. The photos were everywhere—me with Kieran at the charity gala, laughing at something he'd said. The captions painted me as a cheating wife, a social climber who'd finally been caught.

The comments were worse.

'About time. She never deserved him.'

'Gold-digger finally got what she deserved.'

'Bet she's crying now that the money's gone.'

Tessa yanked the phone away and powered it off. 'He's controlling the narrative. Of course he is—he's the Alpha, he owns half the media outlets in the city. This is character assassination.'

'They're not wrong, though.' The words tasted like ash. 'I was nobody before him. A bottom-tier Omega doing catalog shoots for department stores.'

'Stop it.'

'He found me outside that dingy studio in the warehouse district, remember? I was twenty-two, living on ramen and hope. He pulled up in his Maserati like some kind of fairy tale prince.' I could still see it perfectly—the way the afternoon sun had caught the silver paint, how he'd rolled down the window and smiled at me like I was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

'Sage,' he'd said, his voice warm honey over gravel. 'Want to come with me?'

I'd thought it was a pickup line. Rich Alpha, pretty Omega, tale as old as time. But when I'd gotten in that car, something had shifted. The constant ache of loneliness that had lived in my chest since childhood had eased for the first time in years.

'You fell in love,' Tessa said gently. 'That doesn't make you a gold-digger.'

'Doesn't it?' I laughed bitterly. 'Look where I am now. Right back where I started, except now I'm damaged goods with a scar instead of a mate mark.'

Rune's voice was barely audible. 'We're dying, Sage. Without a bond, without a pack connection... we won't last much longer.'

I knew she was right. Lone wolves rarely survived long, especially Omegas. Our wolves needed community, connection, the psychic web that bound pack members together. I could already feel myself fraying at the edges.

But I couldn't think about that now. I had more immediate problems.

'My contract,' I said suddenly, sitting up straighter.

Tessa frowned. 'What contract?'

'With Silverpeak Models. It's a subsidiary of Declan's company, but it's a separate legal entity. The divorce doesn't void my employment agreement.' I was already reaching for my purse, pulling out the folder I'd grabbed from the house. 'I still have six months left on my booking contract.'

'Sage, you can't be serious. You want to go back there? To work for him?'

'I want to survive.' I met her eyes steadily. 'And I want to do it with dignity.'

Rune stirred more strongly. 'She's right. We can't show weakness. Not now.'

'If I'm going to face them—face him and her—I'm going to do it standing up.' I pushed myself off the couch, testing my balance. The dizziness had mostly passed. 'I need clothes. Professional ones.'

Tessa watched me with worried eyes as I walked to her closet. 'Are you sure about this?'

'No.' I pulled out a sleek black dress, something that would photograph well. 'But I'm doing it anyway.'

As I reached into the jacket pocket to check for my keys, my fingers brushed against something that shouldn't have been there. A piece of paper, folded small and tucked deep into the corner.

I pulled it out with trembling hands. The paper was expensive, heavy stock, and when I unfolded it, I found a single line written in unfamiliar handwriting:

'Your blood type isn't what you think it is. Look into it.'

The paper fluttered from my numb fingers.

'Sage?' Tessa's voice seemed to come from very far away. 'What is it?'

I stared at the note lying on the hardwood floor. When had someone put this in my jacket? How long had it been there? And what did it mean?

My hands were shaking again, but this time it wasn't from the cold.