Page 21 of Knot Your Fated M.U.S.E.

The pack bond –that fragile, beautiful thing we'd just begun to build– shattered like glass. The pain nearly killed us all. Would have, if we hadn't been so stubborn. So used to surviving things that should have destroyed us.

Now all that's left is the phantom ache. The empty space where something precious used to be. The hollow in my chest that nothing seems to fill.

A tainted mark on my neck that can’t be overwritten or removed until “I” get over the wounds it left behind.

Three more targets are incoming.

Dodge.

Strike.

Survive.

It's all we know how to do anymore.

My muscles burn with effort, but I push harder.Faster.Need to prove I'm still worthy. Still lethal in this sinister world that could thrive with someone like me contributing to the dark madness that comes with survival. In the end, I still have something left to give.

Because what else is there?

Can't go back to that dream of home and family.

Can't trust another omega with my heart.

Can't risk that pain, agony, and shame I’d gone through.

The final obstacle launches – a complex series of projectiles designed to be impossible to dodge completely. A test of prioritization. Of choosing which hits to take and which to avoid.

Just like life, love, and everything that matters.

I move through the pattern like a dance, accepting the hits I can survive, avoiding the ones that would kill. Each impact is a reminder that I'm still here.

Fighting and breathing as if my time will never run out.

The program winds down, beeping its completion, leaving me still in its wake after the intense and unpredictable routine. I stand in the center of the training room, chest heaving, sweat running in rivers down my tattoo-covered skin.

For a moment, all I can do is stare at the floor. Watch the drops fall. Remember how it felt to have hope.

To believe in something bigger than survival.

The memory of her face flashes again – those jade eyes that promised forever. The smile that said I was enough. The lies that nearly destroyed everything.

I had such dreams once.

Hopes…

Or do I dare say faith in happily ever afters?

Never again.

"Doesn't all that agility shit hurt your head?"

Vale's voice cuts through the aftermath of memory, anchoring me back to reality. I lift my head, still catching my breath, to find him perched on the sidelines.

He's trying for his usual casual sprawl, but I can see the strain in it. The careful way he holds himself. The slight tremor in his hands he tries to hide.

He's paler than yesterday.

Thinner.

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