From Broken Bond to True Love

The lake's surface gleamed under the morning sun as pack members gathered around the shore, their faces solemn. I watched from my hidden vantage point as Spencer knelt beside my "corpse" — actually a carefully crafted illusion created by the rogues I'd hired. My heart hammered against my ribs, but I remained still, barely breathing.

Spencer's hands trembled as he reached toward my pale face. Even from this distance, I could see the confusion in his eyes. He didn't understand why his wolf wasn't reacting to my supposed death.

"Alpha," the pack doctor said, his voice carrying across the clearing, "I'm afraid she's gone. There's no pulse, no breathing. Alice Sullivan is deceased."

The moment those words left his lips, something shifted in the air between us. The mate bond—that invisible thread that had connected us for three years—snapped with a force that would have brought me to my knees if I hadn't been prepared for it.

But I wasn't the one kneeling in the mud.

Spencer's body jerked violently, his hands flying to his chest as if he'd been shot. A howl of agony tore from his throat—not his wolf's call, but something more primal, more broken.

"My Alpha!" Beta Thomas rushed forward, but Spencer waved him away, his face contorted in pain.

"It can't be," Spencer gasped, his Alpha aura flickering like a candle in a storm. "My wolf... he's screaming..."

I pressed my hand against my mouth to stifle any sound. This was the moment I'd both dreaded and needed—the severing of our bond. The rejection I'd begun but couldn't complete while still within his reach.

---

Three days later, they buried me.

The funeral was a blur of black clothes and whispered condolences. I observed from the edge of the forest, disguised and hidden from detection. Spencer stood at the graveside, swaying slightly as if the ground beneath him might give way at any moment.

"Today we say goodbye to Alice Sullivan," the pack elder intoned, "beloved daughter of our former healer Marcus Sullivan..."

Beloved? I almost laughed. They'd never cared for me when I was alive.

Spencer's face was ashen, his once-powerful frame seeming diminished somehow. Gabrielle stood beside him, her hand possessively on his arm, her expression a perfect mask of grief.

"We'll miss her terribly," she murmured, loud enough for those nearby to hear.

But I caught the flicker of relief in her eyes when she thought no one was looking. The slight relaxation of her shoulders. The tiny upward curl of her lips.

"She was so weak," Gabrielle whispered to a pack member who nodded in agreement. "Never really Luna material."

Spencer didn't respond. His eyes remained fixed on the coffin being lowered into the ground. Suddenly, he lurched forward, a strangled sound escaping his throat.

"Spencer?" Gabrielle's voice held false concern as she grabbed his arm. "Are you alright?"

But Spencer's wolf was howling now—I could almost hear it myself, a distant echo of the pain I'd felt when our bond began to break. His body convulsed, and then he collapsed onto the freshly dug earth.

"Alpha!" Thomas shouted, rushing to Spencer's side as pack members crowded around. "Give him space!"

Gabrielle stepped back, her mask slipping for just a moment to reveal satisfaction beneath.

---

Weeks passed, and I settled into my new life across the ocean. But reports of Spencer's deterioration reached me through underground networks of rogues who'd helped me escape.

Today, I received the most disturbing news yet.

"He can barely function," Elena whispered as we sat in the orphanage office. "My cousin in Shadowridge says their Alpha is losing control."

I set down my pen, my heart constricting despite everything. "What happened?"

"Territory meeting with the Northern packs," Elena continued, her dark eyes serious. "Spencer nearly collapsed during negotiations. His Alpha strength is wavering—his decisions are erratic, dangerous."

I closed my eyes, remembering the powerful man who had once commanded an entire pack with a single glance.

"They're whispering about him," Elena added. "Some say the pack might be vulnerable now."

"And Gabrielle?" I asked, though I already suspected the answer.

Elena's laugh was bitter. "Still by his side, but there are rumors she's meeting with other Alphas when he's too weak to notice."

I turned to look out the window at the orphaned pups playing in the yard. I should have felt vindication—instead, I felt hollow.

"Miss Alice?" A small voice interrupted my thoughts. One of our youngest charges stood in the doorway. "Can you read to us today?"

I smiled at him, pushing thoughts of Spencer aside. "Of course I can, little one."

As I followed the child down the hall, Elena called after me: "There's more, Alice. Spencer's been asking questions about that day at the lake. He's not convinced you're dead."

My blood ran cold. If Spencer started looking for me...

I touched the spot on my neck where his mark had once been, now faded to nothing but a faint scar. The bond was broken—but apparently, some connections died harder than others.