Page 96 of Bonds of Pain
A small smile tugs at her lips. “I hope you don’t notice everything about me.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because a girl needs to keep some secrets.” She coyly tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, but the playfulness doesn’t reach her eyes.
I nudge her shoulder gently with mine. “Come on. Something’s clearly bothering you. Tell me.”
Maya sighs, running her fingers over the silver pendant at her throat. “My mother was at the coalition meeting.”
“Charlotte?” I hadn’t expected that. “I didn’t realize that would be a problem. You haven’t seen her since before the bonding, right?”
“I hadn’t seen her in over a year, Ares.” Her voice hardens, a note of resentment and judgment that I’ve never heard from her before. “Not since the last time she tried to sell me off. I’m sure you remember how excited she was when she first accompanied me to the palace. And after, when I told her that Prince Logan put me on my knees, she only wanted to know how many guests she could invite to the bonding ceremony.”
I frown, feeling an unfamiliar tightness in my chest. When she puts it like that, we all sound like assholes. We never should have treated her like that, and I won’t bother making excuses for it, but Maya acts as if her mother sold her on the auction block.
“I’m sorry for the way we treated you, and I’ll say it however many times you need to hear it, but Charlotte obviously wanted what was best for you. This is just what families do with Omegas. It’s how the system works.”
Maya turns to face me fully, her eyes suddenly ablaze. “And you think that makes it okay? That a mother would willingly sign away her child to strangers? Make me basically an orphan in every way that matters?”
“I—“ I start, then stop, realizing I’ve never actually considered it from that perspective.
“She got paid handsomely for it too,” Maya continues, her voice tight. “Enough to move from the outskirts into atownhouse in the central district. My designation was her winning lottery ticket when she sent me off to the Enclave.”
I watch a bead of sweat trail down her temple, wanting to brush it away but resisting the urge. “I always thought of it as training. Like what I went through in the guard.”
“Except becoming a guard and serving in the war earned you freedom that I will never have. Even the highest-ranking Omegas can’t own property or control their own money. We can’t even leave an abusive alpha because the bond is permanent,” Maya points out. “And knowing all that, my mother still sent me to a place where I was groomed to be whatever an Alpha might want me to be. Where I incurred a debt that could only be paid through a bonding contract. Where I was taught that my only value was in my designation.”
None of what she says is news to me, everyone knows how the Enclave works. I’ve never questioned the system—never had reason to. But hearing the obvious devastation in her voice makes something uncomfortable twist in my gut.
“No child wants to be made an orphan, Ares,” she says quietly. “Even if the system calls it something else.”
I stare at my hands, calloused from years of combat training. “I never thought about it that way.”
“No one does. That’s how they get away with it.”
We sit in silence for a moment, watching Logan spar with another guard. The clang of their practice swords fills the air between us.
“For what it’s worth,” I finally say, “I had no idea that’s how you felt about it. I would change things if I could.”
Maya looks at me with surprise, as if genuine sympathy is the last thing she expected. For a brief moment, I glimpse vulnerability beneath her carefully constructed defenses.
“I’m glad to hear you say that.” Then a shadow falls over her face and her voice turns soft, as if she is talking to herself asmuch as to me. “Experience is always the best teacher. All the pain in the world will never hit as hard as the one you have to feel yourself.”
I make a sound of affirmation, despite feeling like I’ve just agreed with something I don’t actually understand.
Logan tosses another guard to the ground with a snarl, making it the fourth man in the last half-hour to end up groaning and bleeding on the grass. His eyes are wild, pupils dilated with aggression. The remaining guards exchange nervous glances, none eager to be his next opponent.
“I think we’re done for today,” Logan announces when none of them steps forward. He stalks toward the palace without looking back.
“Come on,” I tell Maya, who surprised me by sticking around to watch even after Poe offered to take her back to the apartment. “I’ll bring you back.”
We walk in silence through the palace corridors, her smaller frame keeping pace beside me. I’m still processing everything she told me about her mother, about how different her perspective is from what I’ve always accepted. The worst part is that I can’t even argue with her logic.
When we reach the apartment, Logan is nowhere to be seen, but the sound of a door crashing into the wall means he is here somewhere and probably still working out leftover aggression from training.
“You might want to avoid him until the adrenaline wears off,” I warn her as I head toward my room.
To my surprise, Maya chooses to follow me, trailing just a step behind. I raise an eyebrow but don’t question it as she enters my bedroom and settles herself on the edge of my bed. The nest of blankets and pillows she made during her pre-heat still lies in the corner, untouched since that night.
