Rewriting the Bond: An Email to My 18-Year-Old Luna Chapter 05

Rewriting the Bond: An Email to My 18-Year-Old Luna Chapter 05

## Cassian’s POV

The mating ceremony went on.

After they dragged Maeve out, I felt a sharp tug of something. Pity, maybe.

But she’d gone too far. She wasn’t the Maeve I remembered anymore.

She was making up stories about our pup’s health now. That was how desperate she’d gotten.

Serena was everything a Luna should be, graceful, steady, and approved by the Pack.

Either way, this ceremony was happening.

I shoved the whole scene out of my head.

Serena came back from the Luna’s suite in a fresh outfit, and I took her hand like nothing had happened. We made the rounds together, from table to table.

Chandeliers blazed overhead. Guests raised their glasses and smiled like the scene with Maeve had never happened.

Everything was perfect.

My phone rang four times during the reception. I rejected every one.

I knew it was Maeve, still trying to pull me back into her drama.

She’d been like that since we were kids, stubborn to the bone, taking everything like it was life or death.

Maybe I’d go check on her later.

The phone rang a fifth time.

This time, I picked up.

I opened my mouth to snap at her, but it wasn’t Maeve.

“Mr. Stormfang, your pup Sia went into sudden cardiac arrest. We were unable to resuscitate her. I’m sorry. She’s gone.”

“And… Ms. Holloway was involved in a fatal collision on her way back. She didn’t survive either. We need you at the hospital as soon as possible.”

After that, I couldn’t hear anything.

The wine glass slipped from my hand and shattered across the floor.

Every head in the room turned.

Serena was at my side in a second. “Cassian, what’s wrong? You’re pale as a sheet.”

I looked down at the broken glass. Then I crouched, slowly, and started picking up the pieces. I don’t know why.

My hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

“Cassian!” Serena knelt beside me and took my hands. “Don’t. Leave it. Let someone else get it.”

I didn’t move. Didn’t speak. I was frozen solid.

“Cassian, talk to me. What happened? You’re scaring me.”

Serena’s eyes were filling with tears. She’d never seen me like this.

I don’t know how long I stood there before the words finally came out, barely a rasp. “I need to get to the hospital.”

My voice sounded steady. Everything else in me was coming apart.

I walked out.

I started walking. Then I was running.

It wasn’t real.

How could Sia be dead?

Her medical report said she was fine. I’d seen it myself.

And Maeve. Maeve couldn’t be dead.

She was the most stubborn person I’d ever known. Since we were five, every fight, she’d come at me with everything she had. She’d never let anyone get the last word, never let herself lose.

It had to be a scam call. That had to be it. Scammers pulled this kind of thing all the time.

Or a prank. Some sick joke.

No. This was Maeve. Another one of her stunts to get a reaction out of me.

I told myself that the entire drive to the hospital.

Until I walked into the morgue and saw two bodies under white sheets. One adult-sized. One impossibly small.

My legs gave out. I hit the floor on my knees.

I didn’t cry. I didn’t scream.

I just knelt there, hollow, like something had reached inside me and torn everything out.

Serena showed up minutes later, out of breath.

She saw the beds and screamed.

Her eyes went wide, and the tears came before she could stop them.

“No. No, that’s not… how can they both be dead?”

“I gave her the money. I gave it to her, so why… how did this still happen?”

I heard every word. I turned and looked at her, and something inside me went cold.

I saw it all.

“Serena. Did you falsify Sia’s medical report?”

Serena stumbled backward, words spilling out in broken pieces.

“I… I just wanted Maeve to stop bothering you. I wanted her gone, away from you. I didn’t mean for Sia to… I never wanted her to die!”

She lurched forward and grabbed my hands, sobbing. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it, please…”

I shoved her away from me.

I got to my feet, pointing at her, shaking with a rage that made my vision go red.

“You… you…”

Before I could finish, something hot surged up my throat. Blood. Then I hit the floor.

The last thing I saw before the dark swallowed me was Maeve, the eighteen-year-old Maeve, walking away.