“She’s been bossing us both around since we were kids,” I admitted as visions floated to my mind of a much younger version of Wyn with her hands on her hips and an assertive glint in her eye. “She says I’m not serious about it…about her.”
“Are you?”
My immediate response was to say “Of course,” and “Fuck yes.” But I held back. If my own best friend was asking, maybe Wyn had a point. I only growled in response.
“Take it from someone who didn’t realize until it was almost too late,” Mill said. “Sometimes, fate gives you your future on a silver platter. Sometimes, it chucks baseballs at your head until one of them knocks sense into you. My sister is stubborn and bullheaded and quick to make up her mind about things. But deep down inside, she’s scared. She carries too much on her shoulders, always has.”
I knew that. I’d seen it. I wanted to be the one who helped her with it.
“But,” Mill continued, reaching over to grab my shoulder with a friendly shake. “She’s not the only one who’s stubborn and bullheaded when she wants something.”
I smirked and sighed, pushing Wyn to the back of my mind. Right now, I needed to focus on my sister, and once my little wolf patched her up, I’d deal with the fallout.
Eventually, Briggs came out to tell us that Lyra was stable and resting. They let me go back to the infirmary to sit with her, but I barely recognized the person lying on the bed. My sister’s face was pale, and her cheeks sunken in like she hadn’t eaten in months. I slumped into the chair next to her and held her hand, praying she might open her eyes and flip me off for bothering to worry.
“Hey,” Wyn said, poking her head into the curtain. “How are you?”
She, too, looked like a ghost of her former self. I didn’t understand how the healer magic worked, and I never would. The only two people who understood the dynamic were Kodiak and Wyn, but from what they’d said, she had a special connection to the alpha. She could draw on his energy, his magic, to heal the pack, and because he was blood-bound to the rest of us, he could pull from us. Through that, we saved each other. But it took an obvious toll on Wyn, and judging by the dark circles under her eyes and the way she held her midsection, she was about to collapse.
“I’m okay,” I said. “How are you? You look like hell.”
“She lost a lot of blood,” Wyn said, coming to stand next to me. “She was hemorrhaging, and it took a while to figure out from where.”
“Where was it?” I asked, panic blaring down my chest. “Will she be okay?”
Wyn nodded. “C’mon. Let’s take a walk.”
I glanced back at my sister, hesitant to leave her side, but Wyn put a hand on my shoulder.
“She’ll be out for a few days, at least. They’ll let us know if they need us.” She held out her hand. “Come on.”
I took it and let her pull me to my feet, let her guide me down the hallway to the cafeteria, where she sat me down at one of the tables before going to get us both coffee. When she brought it back, I took a sip but hardly tasted it, my mind still back in the med-bay with Lyra.
“Caelum told me what happened in the cave earlier this year,” Wyn said, and I glanced up, more anxiety skating down my spine like ice. “They’ve been able to read each other’s thoughts. They’ve been blood sharing.”
“Fuck. That.” It surged out of my chest before I could stop it. That stupid little fucker. I’ll kill him. I’ll?—
“But there’s no mating bond,” she said, rubbing a hand over her tired eyes. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s affecting Lyra’s inner feline. Her magic is overwhelmed by the connection.”
“How do we fix it?” I’d do anything I had to. Even if Wyn said I had to bleed myself dry to replace whatever Lyra had lost, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
“I’m still working that out,” she said. “But I think she’ll make a full recovery. Once she’s awake, I can ask more questions. I can talk to her shifter side, try to smooth things out. Right now, I’m running blood work on both of them and comparing it to Mill.”
It dawned on me. A few months ago, Mill and Maeve realized they’d been mated for years, but their human sides hadn’t caught up. It connected them on a metaphysical level, weaving all kinds of chaos until Wyn finally put it together. Once they were official, things balanced out.
“So you think Lyra and Caelum have the same thing going on?” I prayed it was that easy. Though the thought of Lyra being mated so young did not calm the tempest in my soul that wanted to shove my fist through Caelum’s face for putting her in harm’s way, as unintentional as it may have been.
“We’ll know more soon.” She reached across the table to take my hand. “I also wanted to apologize for earlier. I shouldn’t— I didn’t mean to imply?—”
“It’s okay,” I said. “You were right. You have every reason to think I’ll move on if we find out it didn’t take.” I glanced down at her belly, indicating the whole reason we were in this mess to begin with. She’d had a heat. I’d helped her through it. We wouldn’t know if she was pregnant for a few weeks. “But Wyn, it means something to me. This means something.”
I touched my neck, where her bite mark still tinged with the potency of her magic. She dropped her focus to the spot and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.
“What if we’re in the same boat as Lyra and Caelum?” I asked. “As Mill and Maeve? What if our wolves have decided, and we’re the ones fucking everything up?”
She sighed and took a sip of coffee. “I guess I always thought it’d be more obvious. You hear stories about shifters meeting eyes across the room and the world disappears, and suddenly they know.”
Wyn had a point. It hadn’t been like that for us. This had been more of a gradual ascension, a lazy river of affection built on years of acquaintance and respect. But now that we were on it, I didn’t want to get off the tube. I wanted to keep her, hold her close, and never let her go.
