Page 134 of Broken Bonds

I lean my head against his shoulder and sigh softly.

“Yeah. I’m okay, Alpha.”

ChapterForty-Four

LINK

I’m somewherethat feels familiar, but I can’t place my finger on why.

There’s an old swing set nearby and one of those old metal spinning wheels that kids would lie on while someone spun them around as fast as they could. I remember spinning Lake on one when we were twelve. I'd spun him so fast that he’d gotten off of it puking. He’d tackled me after and we’d wrestled in the dirt, each of us doing our best to one up the other.

I walk over to that spinning wheel, seeing the red and black peeling paint I remember, and when I circle around it, I find the spot Lake and I had carved our names with the pocketknives we’d gotten each other for Christmas.

We’d both worked all summer, saving up money to buy the things we wanted and gifts for each other for our birthday. When Christmas came around and we opened our gifts, we laughed and wrapped our arms around each other’s shoulders.

We’d bought the same gift.

Nothing fancy, just a simple pocketknife.

But for two kids that didn’t have much but a few personal belongings that we kept in trash bags, they meant something.

I sit on the wheel and look out over the old playground we used to hang out on, curious about why I’d be dreaming about this place now. The wheel turns, startling me, and I look back, jumping up when I see Lake standing there smiling back at me. He looks just like the pictures hanging up around Ramsey’s house, and tears fill my eyes as I rush over to him.

I grip his shoulders, eyes roving over his face, and he chuckles, shaking his head.

“I’ve missed you, brother,” he says, and I drag him into my arms, hugging him tight.

He hugs me back and I feel like a damn fool, but I can’t stop the tears from falling onto his shoulder. He rubs my back, and he doesn’t give me shit for holding onto him like I am or for blubbering like a baby. He just holds me and lets me get it out.

When I finally pull back, I wipe my face with the back of my hand.

“What, is this my subconscious’ way of giving me my goodbye?” I ask, huffing out a laugh.

“Nah, I just can’t leave things the way they were between us. I had to tell you how sorry I am. For leaving. For not calling,” Lake says, sighing and running his fingers through his hair.

He kept it shorter after he left. It looks good on him. And it’s just one thing that makes us look a little different from the other. But he still has my face. My eyes and nose.

“Why’d you do it? Why’d you leave? You had to know I never judged you for your relationship with Van. I never wanted you to give him up for an omega. I just wanted you both to go to the AOA so I’d know you’d be safe,” I tell him, sitting back down on the wheel.

He follows me, sitting next to me, scuffing his foot in the dirt, and looking out over the playground.

“I was an angry teenager, Link. Not always, but a lot of things bothered me about our childhood. That we never had an actual family, never got to live a truly normal life. After I met Ramsey, it was like all that anger and self-pity I’d been holding onto went away, because I finally realized it didn’t matter. When we settled down, Van kept trying to get me to find you, to fix things, but by that point, we’d been with Ramsey for three years and I still hadn’t told her about you. In fact, I’d told her I had no one.”

His brows furrow in anger at himself as he tells me this, but I stay silent, letting him talk.

“When we found out about the babies, I knew I had to call you. I was planning on it the week I died. Kept trying to gear myself up to tell Ramsey and hope she’d forgive me for not telling her. To finally talk to you after so damn long. But Fate had other plans in motion, and I died without ever letting you know I was okay. Without telling my omega how sorry I was and how much I loved her. But death couldn’t stop me from letting her know everything would be okay. We found a way to visit her in her dreams the night everything happened, even if we knew we couldn’t do it too many times. They’re kind of strict about this sort of thing around here. The next time, I visited her by myself. It was when she fainted after you showed up on our doorstep,” he says, grinning over at me.

I roll my eyes because I catch what he’s not saying. That she fainted because she saw my ugly mug, not because I look like her alpha.

Fucker.

“This is the last time I’ll be able to do this. And since we all got to say our goodbyes to Ramsey when the triplets got here, we decided we’d use this last time for you.”

I realize we’re not alone anymore when he says ‘we’, and I look from face to face as the rest of Ramsey’s alphas approach me, each wearing a smile. I recognize them all from their pictures, and I can’t help wondering if this is truly real.

It feels real.

Lake stands up and goes to stand between Van and Ollie, wrapping his arms around them.

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