24 The Bond They Buned 2
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24 The Bond They Buried 2
Nyra’s POV
“We would have been happy together,” Alpha Ethan said, and his voice, his voice carried something I’d
never heard from him before.
Pain.
Not performative.
Not anger disguised as authority.
Real pain.
“And you would have been Alpha instead of your brother?” my mother asked.
I could hear the bitterness in her words, like she already knew the answer even as she asked.
Alpha Ethan’s jaw clenched.
He shook his head once, curt.
“It had nothing to do with that.”
Elaine’s laugh was soft and vicious.
“It had everything to do with that,” she said. “The same reason you’re forcing Kieran into a union with Beverly.” Her voice sharpened. “I wonder if that son of yours will ever grow a spine.”
Alpha Ethan’s eyes darkened.
His hands flexed at his sides.
“It had nothing to do with the Alpha seat,” he repeated, louder, as if saying it hard enough could make it
true.
Elaine didn’t back down.
“It has everything to do with power,” she said. “You cannot even hear yourself anymore.”
Alpha Ethan took a step closer to her, and the air between them turned charged, old history crackling
like fire.
“Our bond,” he said, and his voice lowered again, rougher now, “was an answered prayer for me.”
My chest tightened painfully.
Bond.
He meant it the way mates meant it.
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24 The Bond Thoy Buned 2
Not romance.
Not desire.
Fate.
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The Moon’s thread.
Elaine’s expression flickered, just for a moment, something like grief crossing her face before she shoved it away.
“And you threw it in my face,” Alpha Ethan continued, voice strained, “for what? For this? For nothing? To
become an outcast?”
My mother’s shoulders rose with a slow breath.
She looked tired.
So tired.
Like she’d been carrying this argument for decades and had only just realised it would never end.
Alpha Ethan’s voice dipped, and I leaned forward unconsciously, every sense straining.
“Had it not been for our bond, Elaine,” he said, “I would have left you to die when those things were hunting you on your way to our territory.”
My blood went cold.
Things.
The Outlands.
The creatures that lurked beyond the barrier.
He bared his teeth slightly, not in a snarl, but in something uglier, memory.
“I bore the scars of that night,” he said. “I should have looked away.”
Elaine’s face tightened.
“Then why didn’t you?” she whispered.
Alpha Ethan’s gaze flickered, and for a heartbeat he looked like a man caught between rage and longing.
“Because…” His voice broke slightly on the word, and it shocked me more than any shout could have.” Can I ever get over you?”
Silence slammed into the space.
Even the trees seemed to hold their breath.
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14 The Bond Iney Hunet ?
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My stomach turned.
The way she sometimes woke up sweating. The way she would stare into the distance like she was listening to something I couldn’t hear.
I had always thought it was trauma.
Maybe it was.
Maybe it was more.
“Please, Ethan,” she said again, voice breaking. “Reassign her to something with a bit more dignity, the gardens, the admin office, anything… or leave her with me.”
My eyes filled so fast my vision blurred.
Because suddenly I saw it.
My mother’s whole life.
She had been strong for me.
Strong when people spat at her.
Strong when wolves called her tainted.
Strong when I came home bleeding.
Strong when the world wanted us to disappear.
But this, this was the one thing she couldn’t brute-force with anger.
Because the Alpha held my life like a coin between his fingers.
And if he dropped it, I would die.
Alpha Ethan’s silence stretched.
His jaw worked as if he was grinding his own teeth down.
Then he spoke, and his voice was colder than before, like he was forcing himself back into the Alpha
mask.
“She walked away from my assembly,” he said. “She challenged me publicly. She undermined order.”
Elaine’s eyes flashed. “She asked for dignity.”
“She is wolfless,” Alpha Ethan snapped. “And she is tied to my son. That is enough trouble.”
My stomach dropped again.
So this was never only about punishment.
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It was about control.
About severing anything that threatened his plans for Kieran.
Elaine took a shaky breath, and I saw her hands tremble at her sides.
“Ethan,” she said, voice low, “you are not punishing her for leaving the assembly.”
Alpha Ethan’s gaze sharpened.
Elaine lifted her chin, eyes bright with tears she refused to let fall.
“You are punishing her because she is mine,” she whispered.
The words hit like an arrow.
Alpha Ethan’s face tightened.
And in that tightness… I saw it.
The truth Elaine had just handed me with bare hands.
He hadn’t forgiven her.
Not really.
Not ever.
And because he couldn’t hurt her the way he wanted to, because her power frightened the pack even as they hated her, Because he still loved her.
He hurt me instead.
My chest constricted.
My breath came out ragged.
Something hot and desperate rose in my throat.
I couldn’t stay hidden.
I couldn’t keep listening like a ghost while my life was being carved apart on my porch.
My mother’s plea echoed again in my head.
Reassign her… leave her with me… please….
Tears blurred my eyes.
I wiped them angrily, swallowing the sob threatening to break loose.
I had heard enough.
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24 The Bond They Buned 2
I stepped out of the shadows and into the light.
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Karima Sa’ad Usman Author
Thank you all for the support. I promise you that things will soon get spicy when our stranger returns to town.
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