“Why keep me around?”
“Because when my souldemands you being nearby, it’s really fuckin’ hard to ignore. It’s why you were placed in my cabin. If you couldn’t be my mate in all the correct ways, I’d make sure a piece of you clung.”
I take another step her way, which she immediately notices.
“You didn’t keep your own deal.”
“No,” I reply soft enough that the syllable gets lost in the babbling stream by our feet. “It was my intention to walk away, but then you wereyou. You weren’t like anything I expected. You cared about the pack, about Leah, Dad…you played with the pups. The more time we spent together, the more difficult it was to ignore what was so fuckin’ obvious.”
“Which was?”
“I think you know the answer to that. You were so determined to run off and help the covens and ensure Dad got well, a part of me stopped caring about all of that. Which makes me a terrible son and a worse Alpha, but I started to need you safe more than anything else in the world. More than him. For shifters, a pack is our entire world. Our family, our loyalty. To harm another member is a death sentence. But there’s one thing that will always come above any pack member, no matter what.”
“A mate.” Her whisper catches on the breeze, lost within her horror. “That’s why you promised to come after me.”
“I promised to save you because you didn’t deserve any of it. When my father was dying and I told you to go home… Later, everything I said to you at the border was true. Every word. I meanteverything.”
I manage another step nearer, only an arm’s length away now.
“Then I returned.” She shuts her eyes, going still in ways that describe her heartache more than words ever could. “I walked right into it, didn’t I?”
“You came back to keep the pack safe, and that…that was the stupidest thing you could have done.” I take a final step and her scent—herwarmth—wraps me up. When she inhales, so do I. “Fighting my feelings became pointless. I desired you, so I took you. I bit you because I wanted to, make no fucking mistake about that. I claimed you to find you,kamahki, to feel you, to keep you, to protect you. The day Sloane came, I failed, but you’re back with me, and when we get home, that’s all you’ll ever be—mine.”
Her every breath is mine. Her emotions are mine.Sheismine, and needs to understand this.
My hand reaches to cup her face, fingers brushing against the pulse in her neck; the thrum immediately relaxes my own.
“Feel me?”
“Your emotions come through the link, but it’s also a one-way lead to you—designed that way so a wolf can always find his mate and care for her how she needs.” My fingers move from her pulse to the bite mark, and a low vibration thrums against my fingertips as her head tilts slightly to the side.
Submissive.A wolf who recognizes her Alpha.
As fast as it comes, she pulls away, throwing her own hands up as she whirls for the water. “No, I’m sorry, but no. Thank you, for explaining all that…but no. It doesn’t change anything.”
It changes everything.
“Calling me your fated whatever doesn’t make it real.”
My arm stretches, fingertips brushing her elbow, which she jerks away from. “Carina, it’s real.”
“None of it matters. You bonded with me to save me—and you have. Not because you feel anything. Regardless”—her hair flicks with her rapid shakes—“I need to go home. Tomyhome. I need to get away from you and from everyone and just be alone. I’m not good anymore, Ryder. The Darkness… It’s in control and I’m not.”
Sixty
CARINA
In the past few days,I’ve gone from one identity to multiple.
From having one mother to two.
From not knowing who my father was to learning he’s a shifter.
From being a witch to becoming a hybrid.
From wielding water magick to also claiming black magick.
From one coven to a second.
