Rewriting the Bond: An Email to My 18-Year-Old Luna Chapter 07

Rewriting the Bond: An Email to My 18-Year-Old Luna Chapter 07

Maeve’s POV

When I woke up, the first thing I felt was pain.

Not in my body. In my chest.

A crushing, airless ache that wouldn’t let me breathe.

I sat up slowly. I was in the pack infirmary.

I’d been hit by a truck. So why wasn’t there a scratch on me?

“Maeve, you’re awake?”

Someone was holding my hand. A girl I didn’t recognize leaned over me, worry written all over her face.

“You’ve been unconscious for two days straight. You scared me half to death.”

Unconscious?

I tried to remember what had happened, but there was nothing. Just a void.

“I’m sorry… who are you?”

“Oh, come on. Did that shock fry your brain? You don’t even recognize your own packmate?”

It took me two days to piece together what happened.

I’d traveled back ten years, but in this timeline, three years had already passed.

The trauma had wiped out part of my memory.

I didn’t know where the eighteen-year-old Maeve had gone, but this body was mine now.

It looked like she’d actually listened to me. She’d left Cassian.

She’d gone to college on her own. She’d aced her classes, won design competitions, secured scholarships, all of it.

She’d made real friends. Her phone was full of photos, parties, group dinners, trips. In every one, she looked happy.

She’d actually changed the future. And in this version of it, Cassian wasn’t in my life.

The first few months felt like sleepwalking.

No one to fight with. No pup to take care of. Sleeping in as long as I wanted. I didn’t know what to do with any of it.

My friends noticed. They started checking in on me, dragging me out whenever they made plans.

Sometimes I caught them watching me with careful eyes, like they were afraid I might break.

Slowly, I settled in. The old rhythm of being a student came back, like muscle memory coming back.

Some days I thought about Sia. Some days I still cried.

She belonged in another timeline, but the wound she left was mine to carry forever.

I didn’t look for Cassian. I didn’t want to.

It wasn’t hate. I was just tired.

I’d poured years of my life into loving one person. Gave it everything, lost myself in it.

In the end, it cost me my pup and nearly my own life.

This time around, I just wanted to live. For me.

That peace didn’t last long.

“Maeve, you finally picked up!”

That voice. I’d know it anywhere.

Serena.

“Maeve, do you know what today is?”

Her voice was cracking.

“Today marks three years since Cassian died. How could you forget him?”

Three years? Cassian was dead?

“What are you talking about? Cassian’s… dead?”

“Have you forgotten everything? The day you two severed the bond, three years ago…”

The phone fell from my hand.

I dropped to the floor, hands pressed against my head, as every memory from my eighteenth year came crashing back at once.