Page 17 of Broken Bonds

Turns out, I was right.

I was just too late to find him.

It’s been over a decade since I’ve seen my twin, and our reunion isn’t going to be anything like I had hoped. After all these years of being apart, instead of being able to hug him, to hold him again, I’m having to say goodbye. He’s not going to tell me everything about his life since he left or tell me I’ve gotten uglier over the years, even though he shares the exact same features as me. There will be no ribbing or talking orfucking closure.

I cried for the first time in years after getting that call. Now, I’m here in Crystalwood, checking into one of the few hotels in the city hours after receiving the call that turned my world upside down.

I’d woken Forde and Rion up within an hour and we were packed and in the truck thirty minutes later. There was no way I could sit at home and wait after the call I’d gotten. The need to get down here as fast as I possibly could was damn near overwhelming.

Crystalwood is only a six-and-a-half hour drive from where we’ve lived for the last seven years. My brother was this close for who knows how long, and I still couldn’t find him.

What a bunch of bullshit.

I take the room keys from the lady behind the counter and lead my brothers back out into the sunny rays to park the truck before we head to our room.

I know the lawyer said I didn’t have to come until Link’s omega set a funeral date, but this need to be here — where he was at one point in time — can’t be ignored. Knowing he had an omega brings so many questions to my mind.

Do they have kids? Do I have a brood of nieces and nephews with my twin’s looks? Did he and Van stay together? Were they both in the same pack and still in love?

I know he hadn’t wanted an omega because he’d been worried the omega would refuse to allow him to still love Van. Did they find someone willing to accept the love they held for each other?

I want to meet her, to ask her about my brother and their lives.

I mean, I’m assuming it’s a her. I could be wrong. He could have taken the chance to bond with a male omega for all I know. It doesn’t matter, in any case.

Fuck.

I have this emptiness taking root inside of me that I can’t explain, like a part of my soul has gone missing. Something inside of me recognizes that the other half of me has left this plane and it’s nearly debilitating.

By the time we make it to our new home away from home for the foreseeable future, my chest aches and all I want is to lie down.

If this is how it feels for me, his brother, how must his omega feel right now?

The lawyer didn’t give me many details, only that Lake had died in a car crash with three others. Assuming those three others with him in the car were also his pack brothers and bonded to this omega, I can only imagine the unbearable pain she’s going through.

I’ve heard it’s painful to lose one bond. How much more tortuous must it be losing four? I could always ask Forde. He’s witnessed the complete destruction the loss of multiple bondmates can leave in its wake.

Taking a deep breath, I sink into the comfortable bed with its old-fashioned floral comforter. So many years gone, wasted. Never to be reclaimed. And now there’s no future for a reconciliation or for us to start over. For more than a decade, I have been dreaming of the day when I would get to see Lake again. There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by that I haven’t worried for him. Fucking missed him.

Did he ever think of me in those years? Did he miss me as well, worry about me and how my life had turned out?

“You okay, brother?”

Rion’s deep baritone startles me out of my internal wonderings, and I look at him.

I can smell the bittersweetness of the dark chocolate scent emanating from him the closer he gets to me. It’s so strong that I can taste it on the back of my throat. Even though he’d never even known my brother, he’s experiencing the same emotions for me I would feel for him if the scenario were reversed.

He and Forde have been lost in thought, while also shooting me concerned looks since I woke them up and told them we were leaving with the bare minimum of details.

I know what I look like.

Like death warmed over.

I had already been running on barely any sleep by the time I’d gotten the call. Add in crying and then driving straight here, and I’m wiped. But I’m also wired, my brain not wanting to shut down because it’s so focused on wondering about my brother and his godsdamned life that I’ve missed out on.

When I try to respond, my words come out raspy and hoarse, my mouth feeling as if it’s completely parched and my throat feeling as if there are splinters of glass lodged inside it.

“I will be.”

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