Page 33 of Broken Bonds

I’ve never felt so pulled to someone before and, of course, it’s to a pregnant, grieving omega that’s just lost all four of her godsdamn bonds. Making the issue even more complicated, she’s the omega of Link’s twin.

I’m a fucking asshole.

Today has been rough. Not that I expected it to be a cakewalk, all things considered, but I never could have expected the level of respect and love from the community these alphas have amassed over the years. Walking up to their burial site was a little unnerving when I saw just how many people were there to pay their respects.

Hearing Ramsey talk about her alphas with such emotion was difficult to listen to. Her words were filled with love and devotion, something of which I am terribly envious. Her love for them is resolute, even in their passing.

How lucky they were to have experienced the unwavering love of an omega. To still have that, even in death. It’s been something I’ve always longed for and aspired to have one day.

“I can feel her despair practically choking me all the way over here. Her hurt calls to something inside of me,” Rion mutters, slamming a shot back and grimacing.

Link sighs, running a hand through his hair.

“Me too. Which makes me feel like a royal asshole because she’s my brother’s omega. This is definitely not what I expected to happen when we got here.”

I grunt in agreement, crossing my arms and watching as the omega in question waddles her way down a hallway and disappears out of my sight, which just serves to set me on edge. The need to keep her in my line of sight at all times since meeting her is… powerful.

Just a few days ago, I sat in that woman’s living room with every muscle inside of me clenched as I fought against the compulsion to hold and soothe her as she bled anguish, tainting every particle in her home with it.

She may not realize it, but the level of grief she exhibits is pushing her alpha’s scents farther out as the acrid scent of her despondency takes over like a disease. The faster their scents disappear, the more morose she’ll grow.

I’ve witnessed it all before, and it kills me to see someone else experiencing the same thing. Someone needs to tell her so she has a chance of actually surviving this.

“This has… not been an easy day. Knowing my brother was in one of those boxes and seeing them lower it into the ground felt too final. I’m never going to see him again. Never going to hear his laugh again like I’ve been hoping to or hug him and tell him I’m sorry for whatever I did to make him run.”

Link grips his hair and clenches his eyes shut as tears trek down his cheeks. My throat goes dry at the sight of those tears. It’s an extremely rare occurrence to see Link cry. This is only the third time that I’ve seen it in all the years I’ve known him.

The first was not long after we graduated and started looking for Lake. He’d gotten so drunk he could barely stand one night and everything he’d been suppressing for years had finally come tumbling out. The second was when that lawyer called to give him the news.

Watching this powerful man cry and display his brokenness so openly causes a tightness in my chest that is inexplicable.

I have a great deal of love for Link. He’s my brother by choice, and when he hurts, I hurt. Just like when one of us succeeds, we all succeed. As a pack, we are all connected, and that includes feeling all the emotions, even the hard ones.

I catch sight of Ramsey’s beta friend, Jillian, the one that talked to us for a while after Ramsey had fled to her room. She’s over near where Ramsey had been sitting, talking to Maribel, and I can’t stop myself from heading in her direction.

“I’ll be right back,” I mutter as I walk away.

I’m overstepping, and I know that, but if it’ll help her, I’ll gladly overstep without a second thought. When I step up beside the woman, she blinks up at me in confusion.

“Forde, right?” she asks with a raised brow, taking a sip of the drink in front of her.

I nod.

“What can I do for ya, big guy?”

“Your friend. The intensity of her grief is causing her alpha’s scents to be expelled at a much quicker rate. I know it’s a hard task, but she has to go on and keep the scents she’s so accustomed to around her for as long as she can. Their presence will provide her with the strength and motivation she needs to carry on living. If you can’t get her to snap out of her current state, I’d suggest you find belongings of theirs that still have a strong scent and hide them so she can find them later on,” I tell her quietly, leaning my forearms on the top of the bar, looking at the pictures on the back wall.

Jillian sighs, cradling her head in her hands.

“Don’t you think I know that? I’m trying. I’m trying my best to keep her alive, but it’s so fucking hard. Those men were her life. Losing them has completely broken her, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t pull her out of the hole she’s crawled into. Even for the babies. And that scares me,” she sobs, shoulders shaking with her grief and worry for her friend.

After our introduction to her the other night, my vision of the situation was much clearer. Link had decided he should stay here after meeting Ramsey, which was no surprise to me. He needed to be here, to meet his brother’s kids and help his omega.

His guilt at missing so much of his twin’s life is eating him up, so he feels he needs to be here to help whether that poor woman wants him to or not.

And now? I’m in full agreement with his plan. I refuse to turn my back and let her kill herself. I can’t stand the thought of turning my back, knowing that’s the road she’s heading down after experiencing the downfall of an omega who’s lost their alphas.

I know she’s being subjected to a never-ending stream of pain and suffering, so I can only imagine how difficult this must be for her. I’ve watched helplessly as someone I loved more than anything suffered, their life slipping away day by day, until one day they were gone, no matter how much I’d begged and pleaded for them to stay.

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