Prologue: Before the Bond
267 Words
There was a time before power.
Before titles.
Before the weight of expectation pressed down on her chest like a second heartbeat.
Before she became Alpha.
Jazmine Sullivan stood barefoot in the dirt, her laughter carried through the trees as the sun dipped low behind the mountains. The world was simpler then—smaller. Safe.
And he was there.
Kai Blackbird.
Always there.
“You’re too serious,” he teased, tossing a small stone in her direction. “One day you’re gonna forget how to smile.”
Jazmine rolled her eyes, catching the stone before it hit her. “And one day you’re going to realize not everything is a game.”
But even then… there was something unspoken between them.
A pull neither of them understood.
A tension too deep for children to name.
They stood there for a moment—just staring.
Like something was trying to happen… and neither of them knew how to let it.
Then the wind shifted.
A warning.
Low growls echoed in the distance, and Jazmine’s body went still.
Kai stepped closer without thinking.
“I’ve got you,” he said.
Three simple words.
A promise.
A lie.
Because the world didn’t care about promises.
And neither did fate.
That night was the last time things were easy.
The last time they stood side by side without distance, without titles, without the war that would one day rise between them.
Years would pass.
Power would change them.
And the bond they never acknowledged…
Would become the one thing neither of them could escape.
Whether they wanted it—
or not.
- Writer
