MATED TO THE BULLY

chapter 3:Broken and Gone

Sage left that night without a word. She packed only what she could carry, stuffed her bag with the essentials, and walked quietly through the streets while the town slept.

The familiar houses, the streets she had walked countless times, everything blurred together. She didn't look back. She couldn't.

Every memory of Jaxon's rejection burned in her chest like fire. She had to leave, or she would drown in it.

The ride out of town was long and silent. Sage stared out the window at the passing trees, the dim streetlights casting shadows across her face. Her hands gripped the edge of the seat, knuckles white.

She didn't cry, not yet. The tears were waiting for a safe place, a place where no one could see her weakness. She had always hidden, always endured.

Now, she was running toward something she didn't fully understand: freedom.Back at the school, the hallways felt emptier than ever. Jaxon lingered where the ceremony had ended, staring at the space Sage had left.

Pride kept his face neutral, but inside, something twisted in a way he refused to name. The whispers began almost immediately. "Did you see what happened?" one student said. "She's gone.

She left." Another added, "She was the Omega he rejected… can you imagine?"Jaxon shrugged in front of them, a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "So what?" he said.

"She's just gone. It's not my problem."But at night, when the hall was empty, when no one could see him, Jaxon felt the absence like a sharp edge. He couldn't explain it, and he refused to.

The bond… that invisible pull, the one he had always mocked in stories and dismissed as nonsense, throbbed in his chest. He shoved the feeling down with pride and anger, telling himself she didn't matter.

That she never had.Meanwhile, Sage settled in a small town far from her old home. She found work, a modest room above a shop, and a new routine. Every day was a reminder of what she had escaped—and what she still carried.

The humiliation, the fear, the rejection, it all lingered. But it was no longer a chain.

It became fuel. Every bruise, every insult, every memory of Jaxon's sneer pushed her to become stronger, smarter, better."You can't stay small forever," she whispered to herself one evening, staring into the mirror.

Her reflection looked back, tired but determined.

"You'll make them see you. You'll make him see you. And when you do, you won't be the same girl."Time passed.

Days turned into months, months into years. Sage learned to stand tall, to speak her mind, to assert herself without fear. The girl who had trembled at Jaxon's shadow was gone, replaced by someone who carried herself with quiet confidence.

Yet, even as she grew stronger, a small part of her still felt the sting of that day—the public rejection, the laughter, the feeling of being utterly worthless.Back in her old town,

Jaxon maintained his usual bravado, but Sage's absence left a quiet void he couldn't admit. He pushed it down, blamed the pack's gossip for his unease, and threw himself into responsibilities that kept him busy.

But every so often, when he thought no one was watching, he found himself thinking about her.

The girl he had mocked, the one he had called pathetic… she was gone, and he couldn't shake the pull he refused to name.One afternoon, as he walked through the forest near the school, he heard a voice behind him.

"She left," a friend said quietly, almost in disbelief. "No one's seen her since the ceremony. You… you didn't even try to stop her?"Jaxon shrugged, forcing a grin. "She wanted to leave.

I didn't make her." He didn't add the truth: that part of him wanted to call after her, wanted to tell her she mattered, but his pride had stopped him. Instead, he walked on, leaving the question and the regret hanging in the air.

For Sage, the world was different now. Every day was a battle to rebuild herself, to forget the past and yet carry its lessons. She studied late into the night, learned new skills, and pushed herself beyond what she had thought possible.

Alone, she became her own Alpha, her own protector. And yet, every so often, a memory would surface—Jaxon's voice, the sneer, the rejection—and her chest would tighten, reminding her that she had once been broken.

One evening, as she walked along the quiet streets of her new town, she felt the weight of those memories heavier than usual.

She stopped, took a deep breath, and whispered to herself, "I'm not her anymore. I won't let him or anyone define me."And in that determination, a small spark of something else ignited—something she didn't recognize yet.

A quiet strength, a resolve that whatever future came, she would face it on her own terms.

She would never let the past cage her again.Meanwhile, Jaxon, sitting alone in his room in the old town, stared at the ceiling and for the first time in his life, admitted a tiny, frightening thought to himself. I miss her. Pride screamed at him, told him it was impossible, that he couldn't feel this way about the girl he had humiliated.

But deep down, under the layers of anger and denial, he knew it was true. And for the first time, he wondered what it meant that she was gone.

Sage's absence became a silent wound for them both—hers hidden under strength and determination, his buried under pride and denial. The years stretched on, quiet and unrelenting, shaping them into the people they would become.

Sage, stronger and wiser, yet scarred. Jaxon, mature in title but still chained by the mistakes of his youth.And though neither knew it yet, the bond between them had not disappeared.

It waited, quietly, like a storm gathering in the distance, ready to pull them back into each other's orbit.For now, Sage walked alone, stronger than she had ever been, and Jaxon faced the emptiness his pride had created.

Their paths had diverged, but fate had other plans, and the story was far from over.