Broken Bonds

“Get out!” The young woman yelled at Rey again.

“I would,” Rey answered calmly, “but your friend out there locked the door.”

Definitely Mac knocked on their door early in the morning and asked Rey to come help him with one of the werewolves that got hurt during the night shift. Rey didn’t spend even a second thinking about his request, and maybe she should have. Maybe she wouldn’t be in this mess right now.

If he wanted to get rid of her so badly, he could toss her into the pit of poisonous snakes, and even that would be a more merciful death.

“You are a werewolf, for heaven’s sake. Use your damn werewolf strength!”

“Yeah, that would be problematic,” Rey muttered to herself. Even if she were at the top of her game, she would be able to do little to move the pile of muscles leaning against the other side of the door.

“Listen,” she said instead, letting the door be, “he is not going to let me go out until I do what he sent me to do. So, if you want me gone, you might as well help me with the door or show me your hand. Your choice!”

“I could still toss you out of the window.”

Elaine’s answer made the hair on Rey’s body bristle. The fact she said it with a completely straight face wasn’t helping too.

She didn’t know enough about Elaine to know whether she would or would not be capable of doing so and Rey wasn’t keen on figuring it out on her own skin.

Flying out of the window was a once in a lifetime experience, and Rey could already check it out of her list. As she mentioned before, not all the people, Brynn came to help, welcomed them with open arms.

Despite her threats, Elaine made no move to get up from her spot and Rey released a bit of tension out of her body: “How about we have a normal conversation like mature human beings do? And if by the time we are done, you still have the urge to proceed with your original plan, we can discuss it?”

Rey wasn’t very keen on the idea of using act like the luna of the pack should, but she was ready to do so.

Elaine contemplated her suggestion for a while, and then she nodded.

Rey pushed her luck a little more by asking: “Can I sit next to you?”

Another nod.

It wasn’t wise to let your eyesight fall off your potential enemy, so Rey didn’t have the chance to absorb the room she was in. She properly saw only the wooden bench Elaine was seated on and the blank wall behind her.

Carefully, as if she was approaching a wild animal, Rey walked closer to Elaine and sat down next to her. “Did you ask him to bring you here so you could negotiate the terms of the annulation?”

Elaine’s question got her a puzzled look from Rey. She answered it with: “Well, you know, now that you are back ....”

Rey’s pulse quickened: “Oh, come on. Not this again!”

“I am not the only one who thought about his, huh?” Elaine scoffed. “No surprise here.”

It couldn’t be good for Rey’s heart to go through so many strong emotions in such a long time. It just couldn’t. Yet here she was. Her anger reaching its peak in the record time once again.

Why was everyone thinking this? What even gave them the right to?

“I have no desire to come between you and your mate,” she worked on keeping her voice steady since the rest of her body definitely wasn’t, “he is yours now. And I am happy, he is happy.”

“That makes you either the most selfless person on earth or the stupidest one.”

Maybe Elaine was right. Maybe it really was stupid of her, but Rey genuinely wished him happiness.

“Look, I am not going to lie. There was a time of my life when I thought he was it for me. I dreamed we would build a house where we would live together. And about children that would bring joy and laughter in it. I dreamed we would go through highs and lows together for the rest of our lives. But any kind of future, I ever wished to have with him, was destroyed that night. And I never looked back. Because there is nothing to look back to. What is broken is going to stay broken.”

“Maybe there is nothing to look back too, but there could be something to look forward to.” Elaine refused to turn her head towards Rey, but the sound of her voice brought bitterness with it as she continued: “He is the alpha now. He could give you the life you always wanted. Maybe even more. The only obstacle standing in the way is ... well, me.”

As it turned out Rey’s anger didn’t reach its peak after all. Was it possible for humans to start fuming? Because she felt she would start really soon. “You are not some stupid chunk of wood in the middle of the road! You are his mate now. He chose you to go through life with and you chose him. You should have a lot more faith in your relationship!”

Elaine sighed: “It was a marriage of convenience.”

The conversation with the old man already indicated what Elaine just confirmed, but Rey still wanted to believe, he came to a wrong conclusion.

“What?” She got out of herself.

“Did you really think we met one sunny afternoon and fell desperately in love with each other?”

Was yes the wrong answer?

“He chose me alright. Because he needed a luna to stand by his side. No pack would ever follow him without one. And I chose him because I needed someone to offer me protection. My parents died and pretty much everyone I cared about, was gone. So boom, we swore an oath and here we are. But there is no love between us.”

Rey didn’t know many things.

She didn’t know why the sunset on the west or why the person who meant the world to you, could one day become just a memory, but she knew love when she was it.

And there was love in Elaine’s eyes when she looked at Talon.

“Somehow I find it hard to believe you,” Rey said softly.

“What do you want from me? Should I admit, I was stupid enough to fall in love with a man who will never love me back?”

Elaine finally turned towards Rey and bared a piece of her soul to her.

All the pain, frustrations, and insecurities.

Rey wondered what Elaine could read in her eyes at that moment.

She tried to lighten up the mood by saying: “Not with that attitude he won’t.”

Elaine’s lips formed a sad smile: “What about you then? After all you went through, do you still believe, there is another person for you out there? Someone you could live your dream life with?”

Had someone asked her this question three years ago, Rey’s answer would be a lot different than now. But a lot had changed since then.

“Yes, I do. Humans fall in love without any predestined bonds all the time. Why couldn’t I as well? Why couldn’t he? We were already screwed over. The least we deserve is another chance at being happy. But if it serves as any kind of reassurance to you, we would never be happy together. There is too much evil between us now.”

Maybe it were Rey’s words, maybe it was something entirely different, but Elaine finally stuck up her chin and said: “I don’t need your reassurances.”

“Of course you don’t,” Rey smiled, “what you need is my help with your hand.”