Rewriting the Bond: An Email to My 18-Year-Old Luna Chapter 04

Rewriting the Bond: An Email to My 18-Year-Old Luna Chapter 04

I lost it.

I called Cassian over and over. Ten times, twenty, I don’t know.

First he declined every call. Then he blocked my number.

I ran out of the hospital, flagged down a cab, and went straight to the pack hall.

By the time I got there, Cassian was standing outside the venue in a tailored black tuxedo, roses in hand, seconds from walking in.

I threw myself at him and grabbed his sleeve. My voice was barely there.

“Cassian, Sia’s dying. She’s in the ICU right now. She needs surgery. Unfreeze the card! Please, just unfreeze it!”

Cassian’s jaw tightened. He signaled the guards over.

“Maeve, enough! I’ve seen Sia’s medical report. It’s nothing serious. Stop making a scene.”

I screamed, I fought, and they dragged me out anyway.

The ceremonial music swelled inside the venue, swallowing my screams whole.

The old phone in my pocket buzzed.

[Twenty-eight-year-old Maeve, it’s Cassian.]

[I know everything now. Everything that’s supposed to happen. And I swear, none of it will. Not to me and Maeve.]

[I’ll spend my whole life loving her. No one’s ever going to hurt her.]

I stared at the screen until the words blurred. The tears wouldn’t stop.

The eighteen-year-old Cassian swore he would love me with everything he had.

The twenty-eight-year-old Cassian was mating with someone else while his pup died alone in a hospital bed.

The phone rang. The hospital.

“Ms. Holloway, I’m so sorry. We were out of time. Your daughter… she didn’t make it. Time of death…”

Everything went silent.

My mind emptied out.

No. No, no, no… my baby.

Onstage, Cassian and Serena had just exchanged mating vows. He was leaning in to kiss her.

I tore free from the guards’ grip and charged the stage, shoving them apart.

“Cassian! She’s dead! Our pup is dead. Do you hear me?”

I grabbed his collar and slammed my fists against his chest.

Cassian caught my wrists and roared, “Maeve, you’ve lost your mind! Sia was fine. She can’t be dead! Somebody get her off me…”

Serena cowered behind him, screaming, “She’s lying! That money was more than enough to cover Sia’s treatment!”

I let go of Cassian, grabbed Serena by the hair and yanked her back, striking her face. Again and again.

“You did this! You tampered with the medical report! You killed my pup!”

The whole venue descended into chaos.

Serena shrieked that I’d lost my mind. Guests scrambled out of their seats.

The guards hauled me up by the arms and dragged me out.

I stumbled to my feet and ran, typing as I went.

[Maeve, my pup is dead. Minutes ago. Cassian and Serena are at their mating ceremony right now. They killed her.]

[I’m begging you. Leave Cassian. Don’t fall in love with him. Don’t mate with him. Please. Don’t let my pup die again.]

I was begging myself. My own eighteen-year-old self. Don’t make the same mistake.

Tears blurred my vision. I couldn’t see a thing.

By the time I realized where I was, I was standing in the middle of the road.

A truck was barreling toward me.

Brakes screamed.

The world tilted and spun.

Through the haze, I saw him, the eighteen-year-old Cassian, screaming my name, running toward me.

“Maeve…!”