“Ready,” I said, though I wasn’t.
Verna nodded to the mirror. I saw a reflection flicker, then Savannah’s face on the other side of the glass. She was strapped down too, painted with the same runes, her eyes huge and shining in the fluorescent light. My wolf went ballistic, jaws snapping, body straining against the skin that held him in.
Verna placed a crystal disk in my right hand, another in Savannah’s. “On my count,” she said, “squeeze.”
I squeezed. At the same instant, so did Savannah.
The disks vibrated. My entire arm went numb. The room melted away, replaced by a tunnel of sound and sensation—her pulse, her breath, the sound of her voice in my ear. I saw flashes: her face in the moonlight, her hands tangled in my hair, the blood on her lips when she bit me back. Every memory we’d ever made together, flooding me at once.
I saw her chained up the first day. I saw myself carrying her through the rain. I felt the echo of every time I’d fucked her, every orgasm, every whimper, every moan. My cock went hard in my pants, obscene and out of place, but I couldn’t stop it. I felt her own arousal, the way she craved my touch, my mouth, my teeth. I felt her fear, too: the silver, the pain, the terror of losing me.
All of it. All at once.
When the vision broke, I was gasping for air, head swimming. The disk in my hand was shattered, splinters of glass driven deep into my palm. I didn’t care.
On the other side of the glass, Savannah was crying, but she looked better than she had when she came in. Alive. Alert.
Verna made a note on her pad. “Perfect resonance,” she said. “Textbook.”
I stared at her, teeth bared. “Let me see her.”
She shook her head, almost gentle. “One more test.”
I almost killed her. But I sat, and I waited.
The final test was a scan. Verna and the rune witch wrapped an elastic cap around my scalp, each node stitched with what looked like gold thread. I felt nothing, but when they activated the machine, the world started to spin.
“Close your eyes,” Verna said. “Picture her.”
I did. I pictured Savannah in my arms, her scent in my nose, the feel of her cunt tightening around my cock, the way she called me “Menace” with a tremor of love and awe. I pictured her laughing, I pictured her crying, I pictured her shifting into her wolf and running through the grass at my side.
The machine beeped and then shrieked. On the monitor, a series of jagged lines rose and fell, every one in sync with my heartbeat.
A second monitor displayed a 3D model of my body, luminous threads extending from my heart, my spine, my brain—all of them arcing through the glass, straight to Savannah. The threads pulsed gold, thicker and brighter with every second.
Verna shut off the machine. The room went silent.
“There is no doubt,” she said, voice almost reverent. “The bond is genuine. Fated.”
The wolf in me howled. “Then let me see her.”
She hesitated. “The Council has not yet—”
I don’t remember what happened next.
One moment I was sitting; the next I was standing, the chair splintered to kindling beneath me. I flipped the table, sending paperwork and trays flying. The rune witch tried to back away, but I caught her by the arm and slammed her into the wall so hard the mirror fractured. Bronc was on me in an instant, arms around my chest, dragging me backwards. Juliet tried to grab my wrist, but I shook her off, teeth snapping, vision tunneling to red.
“You don’t get it,” I screamed, voice raw and bestial. “You don’t fucking get it! She’s mine! You’re keeping her from me! You’re doing this on purpose!”
Verna stood her ground, calm as a corpse. “I do understand. That is why we test. If you cannot control yourself, the bond is a danger.”
“Better a danger than a fucking corpse,” I spat, but Bronc tightened his grip, his own Alpha voice crackling with power.
“Stand. Down,” he ordered, and for a second I hated him, but the command drilled straight through my skull.
I dropped the witch, hands shaking so bad I thought my bones would snap. I hit the floor, panting, every muscle on fire.
Juliet knelt beside me, whispering something I couldn’t hear. My mind was gone, taken over by the need to get to Savannah, to touch her, to make sure she was alive.
