Chapter 3: When the Bond Turned to Pain

The night air was cold when Julia stepped out of the pack hall. Behind her, laughter echoed against stone walls. Music began to rise—drums and cheers and the pounding rhythm of celebration. Silver Fang was rejoicing. Rejoicing over their new luna. Rejoicing over her pain. Julia did not look back. Her feet carried her down the familiar dirt path toward the edge of the territory where the omega cabins stood. Smaller structures. Simpler. Functional. Built close together yet somehow always feeling isolated. When she reached her cabin, she pushed the door open and stepped inside. Silence. The room greeted her like it always did—plain wooden walls, a narrow bed pushed against the corner, a small table with two chairs, a single shelf holding neatly folded linens and a few worn books. No grand windows. No fireplace carved from stone like the warriors had. No decorations except the faded wildflowers she once gathered during spring. Tonight, it looked different. Colder. Empty. Like she was seeing it for the first time. “This is my life,” she whispered. Her voice sounded hollow in the small space. A sparsely decorated cabin. A simple bed. A lonely existence. Just like what she felt inside. Julia’s knees weakened and she leaned against the door for support. The weight of reality crashed down on her chest. “How can I—an omega—ever think someone like Jason… an alpha… would choose me?” Her laugh came out broken. “I do not have anything to offer. Nothing of value. I am nothing.” Her wolf whimpered deep inside her mind, curling into herself. The first tear slid down Julia’s cheek. Then another. Each one felt like a blade slicing through her heart, carving away the last fragile pieces of hope she had carried for three years. It felt as if she were bleeding from the inside out. From the distance, she could still hear the celebration. The cheers. The clinking of glasses. They were celebrating her pain. Celebrating her humiliation. Celebrating a political alliance sealed while her soul shattered in secret. Julia moved slowly toward her bed and lay down without bothering to remove her shoes. She curled into herself, arms wrapped tightly around her stomach as if she could physically shield her heart from further damage. But what could possibly hurt more than this? She closed her eyes. If she could just sleep… if she could forget for even a few hours. Darkness swallowed her. ⸻ She didn’t know how long she had been asleep when it began. A sharp, burning pain tore through her abdomen. Julia gasped, bolting upright. Her hands flew to her stomach as if something inside her had been ripped open. Then came the second wave. A slicing agony across her chest—straight through her heart. Her wolf howled inside her mind. “He is with her,” her wolf cried. The bond. She could feel it. Jason. With Luna Willow. The mating. Every touch. Every claim. Every connection echoed through the bond they still shared. “How can our mate do this to us?” her wolf sobbed. “How can he hurt us this much? Why did he not kill us first? Was it not enough to make us stand there and watch him choose another? Why our mate this cruel to us? What ever did we do to deserve this pain.” Julia clawed at her stomach, desperate to tear out whatever was causing the pain. “Make it stop,” she cried aloud. “Please… Goddess, make it stop. It’s too much…” Her claws scraped against her skin. Blood seeped through her thin nightshirt. It dripped onto the sheets beneath her. But no matter how deep she clawed, the pain did not lessen. It continued. It burned. It consumed. The mating bond between alpha and luna strengthened somewhere across the territory, and Julia felt every second of it like molten metal poured into her veins. She could feel everything. Every touch. Every caress. Every kiss Jason gave to his new Luna echoed through the bond like a knife carving through her soul. Julia curled tighter on her bed, her entire body trembling violently. Sweat soaked her skin despite the cold that clung to the cabin. Her sheets were damp beneath her—not only from sweat, but from blood slowly spreading across the mattress. Her claws dragged across her stomach and chest again. And again. And again. Anything to stop the pain. Anything to rip out whatever was destroying her from the inside. But nothing worked. Nothing stopped it. Her wolf was howling in agony inside her mind, writhing and crying as the mating bond forced them to feel every moment Jason shared with Willow. The warmth of his hands on another woman. The affection in his voice. The desire. The claiming. Julia bit down hard on her arm to stop her screams from escaping the cabin, but the sobs still broke free from her chest. Why? Why was this happening? Had she not loved him enough? Had she not given him everything she had? For three years she stayed hidden in the shadows for him. For three years she accepted secret meetings, whispered promises, stolen nights. For three years she endured being treated like she was nothing more than a shameful secret because she believed him when he said one day he would claim her openly. And now— Now she was alone while he marked another woman as his. The pain intensified suddenly. Julia gasped so hard her lungs burned. Through the bond she felt Jason’s emotions surge—possessiveness, desire, satisfaction. Then came the moment that shattered what remained of her heart. She felt his teeth sink into Willow’s neck. The marking. Permanent. Sacred. Final. Willow’s answering cry echoed faintly through the bond before Julia felt Willow bite him back, sealing their marks together. The instant their mating completed, agony exploded through Julia’s body. She screamed. Her back arched violently as pain tore through her chest like claws ripping flesh apart. Blood dripped from the wounds her own nails had carved into her skin, but she barely noticed anymore. Her wolf collapsed inside her mind, whimpering weakly. It hurts… Julia could not even answer her. Tears streamed endlessly down her face as she curled tighter into herself, trying desperately to make the pain smaller somehow. But there was nowhere to escape it. The mate bond forced her to feel everything. Every ounce of love Jason should have been giving her. Every touch that should have belonged to her. Given freely to someone else. And all Julia could think was— What had she ever done to deserve this? She had obeyed. Loved. Waited patiently. Trusted him completely. So why did it feel like the Goddess herself had chosen her for suffering? Her breathing became uneven. Her vision blurred from pain and exhaustion. Still, the bond continued to pulse with the warmth of Jason and Willow together while Julia lay bleeding and broken in the dark. Completely alone.