“Besides, Sloane will return, and if your father, Conan, and this bond didn’t explain it well enough, then allow me to. The packneedsto stay out of coven business. You’ve all been through enough, and I won’t live with myself if someone else is targeted because of me. Again.”
“You and I will go, and Xander will stay with the pack.”
The hint of hope immediately shielded by grief reaches through the link. “You can’t leave your family.”
“You’remy family.” What about this doesn’t she get?“You’re the only one who matters.”
“It still doesn’t make me safe to be around.”
Her sorrow-filled voice nearly drives me to my knees. Instead, I slam my hand against the barrier, forced to painfully watch as it ripples instead of letting me through. “You’re not a bad person! Is the magick speaking to you right now?”
“No.”
“Ever think it was only earlier? That your body and magick are becoming one? You’re strong,kamahki. Let me be strong with you.”
She turns her face away, hair masking the misting of her eyes.
“Fine,” I concede for the sake of conversation. “What happens after when you feel in control?”
Her silence is deafening, broken only by a small exhale that echoes through me, to the place the bond initially formed, to where my wolf curls up, wanting to die with the heavy realization.
She isn’t planning on coming back.
“I need to find my birth coven…and maybe my father.”
A shifter. She’s leaving me to journey to an unfamiliar pack, to meet a stranger. Fuck that.
“They’ll see the bite and smell my trace. They’ll know who you belong to.”
“Ineed to be in control,” she snaps. “Ineed to do this. When is the last time I’ve had a say in anything in my life? I lost my coven because they kicked her out for fucking a shifter. I lost my mother because of Twilight Grove’s insanity. Mom raised me to take her place, which isn’t my choice. Sloane changed my soul forever; there is no going back from what she’s done. And you’re telling me I’m your mate when I never got to decide it for myself.”
My growl feels like razorblades up my throat. “You had every choice.Youcame tome. You kissed me back. You said ‘yes.’”
“I didn’t know what I was agreeing to!” Her arms drop from her chest. “You didn’t tell me the truth, even when knowing from day one! You lied this entire time and now expect me to fall into your nest and be your little breeder.”
Well, yeah.“Since when do you even want to be a High Priestess? Don’t start lying to me.”
“Fair’s fair.” She sniffs and lifts her chin, making herself look more like a coven princess than ever—furtherfrom methan ever. “I want to take Mom’s role because the coven’s magick will ground me.”
“I’llground you. You’re a shifter. I’m your Alpha.”
Magick sparks along her hair as her lips pull back over her teeth. “I have the DNA, nothing more. Do not pull rank you don’t have over me.”
I do rank over her, but re-stating this won’t win my case. Especially when the only thing I actually desire, from the deepest parts of me, is her to be cared for, no matter how that looks.
“Tell me exactly what you want and I’ll give it.”
“Space.” Reinforcing her words, she backs up another step. “To think. This week alone, I’ve gone from being Mom’s daughter to having another set of parents. I’ve gone from being bored in Banff to being part of some weird ass plan by an insane witch following a Seer’s vision about Earth’s future. I went from being terrified of your kind to seeing them as people. To caring. To caring about them…and you. And—” She stops at her own gasp, biting down on her bottom lip.
Her admittance is enough.
Fingers turn into claws and stab the barrier without breaking it. “Drop this fuckin’ thing. Or pull me through. Or you come to me.”
For a long moment, I assume she’ll walk away. End this while she can, while she’s in control of the situation. But then her scent grows stronger as she walks through the barrier and stops close enough I could snatch her now and hide her from everything—even herself. She’s close enough to imply some sort of trust, some level of actual desire for me.
“Ryder.” My name on her lips, spoken with regret, is torture. “I’m sorry.”
One way or the other, she was always destined to leave me—either with Twilight Grove or like this.
