The Broken Luna, Now His Regret novel Chapter 18

18 Chapter 18 The Mate Bond’s Revenge

18 Chapter 18 The Mate Bond’s Revenge

One week after the supervised visit, Mira woke at 3 AM in her childhood bedroom, gasping for air like she was drowning.

The mate bond.

It felt like her chest was being ripped open from the inside, like someone had doused her heart in gasoline and struck a match. The pain was so intense, so overwhelming, that for a terrifying moment she couldn’t tell where her anguish ended and Kieran’s began.

She stumbled to the bathroom on shaking legs and splashed cold water on her face, trying desperately to sever the connection, to push him out of her mind and heart the way she’d been training herself to do for months.

But the bond wouldn’t let go. It pulsed and burned and screamed, demanding acknowledgment, demanding reconciliation, demanding things she couldn’t give.

Through it, she could feel everything Kieran was feeling. The crushing weight of his guilt. His wolf howling in agony. His desperate, overwhelming need for her that he’d denied for so long finally consuming him whole.

It was unbearable.

Her phone rang, cutting through the silence of the pre–dawn darkness. Kieran’s name flashed on the screen.

She’d unblocked his number after the custody agreement was signed. “For Brielle’s sake,” Patricia had said firmly. “Co–parents need to be able to communicate about their child.”

Mira stared at the phone for three rings, four, five. Every instinct screamed at her to let it go to voicemail, to protect herself from whatever fresh pain this conversation would bring.

But the bond was burning so fiercely that she could barely think straight. And maybe- maybe talking to him would ease the agony just enough to let her breathe again.

She answered, her voice barely a whisper. “Kieran.”

“Mira.” His voice was destroyed–raw and broken in a way she’d never heard before, not even during his public confession. “Please. I can’t–the bond is killing me. Literally

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killing me. Can you feel it? Please tell me you can feel it too and I’m not going insane.”

“Yes.” She slid down the bathroom wall to the cold tile floor, pressing her free hand against her chest where it hurt most. “I feel it. It’s been getting worse every day since the press conference.”

“When I felt it trying to break during your testimony–when I thought I might lose that connection to you forever-” Kieran’s breath hitched. “Mira, I’ve never been/more terrified in my entire life. My wolf nearly went feral. It took three of my enforcers to keep me from storming that press conference and dragging you out of there.”

Despite everything, despite all the pain and betrayal, Mira felt a treacherous flutter in her chest at his words. “That’s just the mate bond talking. Biology. Supernatural instinct. Nothing more.”

“No.” The word came out fierce, definitive. “No, it’s not just the bond. It’s me. Finally— finally–seeing clearly what I’ve had all along and destroyed through my own stupidity and cowardice.”

Mira closed her eyes against the tears that threatened. “Why now, Kieran? Why do you finally care now that I’m gone? Why couldn’t you have cared when I was there, begging for scraps of your attention, nearly dying to give you children you didn’t even want?”

“Because I’m a fucking idiot.” His laugh was bitter, self–loathing. “Because I took you for granted. Because I was a coward who couldn’t admit that my arranged match turned into real love while I was busy pretending it didn’t exist. Because-” His voice cracked completely. “Because I was terrified of how much power you had over me, so I convinced myself I didn’t care, and by the time I realized the truth, I’d destroyed everything.”

“You loved Astrid.” It wasn’t a question. It was the truth Mira had lived with for three

years.

“I never loved Astrid.” The words came out sharp, almost angry. “I cared about her, yes. Was attracted to her, yes. But love? Mira, I’ve only ever loved one woman in my entire life. And I spent five years systematically proving to her that she didn’t matter, that she wasn’t enough, that she was disposable.”

Mira pressed her hand harder against her chest, trying to contain the hope that wanted to bloom there. “It’s too late. You know that, right? Whatever you’re feeling now–it’s too late.”

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“I know.” The acceptance in his voice was devastating. “I know it’s too late for us. I know I destroyed any chance we had at happiness. I know you’ll never trust me again, never love me again, and I deserve every ounce of that pain. But Mira-” She could hear him moving, pacing probably, his footsteps echoing in what sounded like the empty manor. “Can we at least try to stop hating each other? For Brielle? Can we try to be.. civil? Maybe even friends someday?”

“I don’t hate you,” Mira admitted quietly, the words costing her everything. “I hate what you did. What you let your family do to me. What we became. But you? I could never hate you, Kieran. That’s the fucking problem.”

Silence stretched between them, heavy with all the words they’d never said, all the chances they’d missed, all the love they’d destroyed.

Finally, Kieran said softly, “The bond hurts less when we’re talking. Have you noticed?”

She had. The burning, tearing pain had dulled to a manageable ache–still present, still painful, but no longer unbearable.

“Maybe that’s how we survive this,” Kieran continued, his voice rough with exhaustion. “We talk. We co–parent. We figure out how to exist in each other’s lives without destroying each other further. We try to be… if not friends, then at least friendly. For our daughter.”

“Friends,” Mira repeated, testing the word. It felt wrong in her mouth, impossible. “After everything. After five years of you choosing her. After you nearly let me die. After-”

“After everything,” Kieran interrupted gently. “What else do we have, Mira? What’s the alternative? We spend the rest of our lives hating each other while the mate bond slowly drives us both insane? We make Brielle choose sides until she’s so damaged she’ll never trust love again?”

He was right. God help her, he was right.

“Okay,” she whispered. “Okay, we try. But Kieran–if you hurt me again, if you let your

mother or Astrid or anyone hurt me again, I’m done. Forever. No second chances. No explanations. Just done.”

“Understood. And Mira? Astrid’s gone. Permanently. I ended things completely, publicly. And I told my mother if she ever speaks to you with anything less than complete respect, I’ll strip her of her title and exile her from pack lands.”

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Mira’s breath caught. “You didn’t-”

“I did. I should have done it five years ago. I should have protected you the way an Alpha protects his mate. I failed at that. But I won’t fail again.” His voice hardened with determination. “You’re still my Luna, whether we’re married or not. And anyone who disrespects you answers to me.”

They stayed on the phone until dawn began to paint the sky outside Mira’s window, not saying much of importance, just… existing together. Talking about Brielle’s upcoming preschool graduation. About the house Mira was looking at renting. About Fletcher’s terrible attempts at cooking now that Heidi had quit in protest of the

divorce.

Small things. Normal things. The kinds of conversations they should have been having all along.

And the mate bond, that cursed supernatural connection that refused to let them go, finally quieted to a bearable hum beneath Mira’s skin.

But as sunlight streamed through the window and she finally ended the call, Mira understood with crystal clarity that this was only temporary.

Because mate bonds like theirs didn’t just fade into comfortable friendship.

They festered and burned and demanded until someone broke completely.

And she was terrified of which one of them would shatter first.

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