My blood ran cold, dread washing over me. “What do you mean?” I demanded.
“If the texts I’ve uncovered in my search to help you are true, our kind doesn’t need spells to bond. Not when it’s fated.” The words carried a weight that crushed the breath from my chest. Even as my mind railed against them, some part of me knew them to be true. “If she’s your fated, the bite alone would have initiated the bond. The bond forms instantly because it’s blessed by the gods and ordained by fate herself. You don’t choose a fated mate, Gabriel. You find them. Or they find you.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, pressing my head harder into the stone as nausea rolled through my stomach. “So, you’re saying…”
“This is permanent. The bond will continue to draw you to her until it’s completed. There is no breaking it, not that I’ve found. Every text I’ve uncovered implies that once a fated bond is initiated, that’s it. Deny it all you want, but the pull will get stronger, more insistent, until fully sealed. You bit her, and that was enough. That can only mean she was fated for you from the start.”
My hands curled into fists, nails biting into my palms. “No.No, I refuse to believe that. There has to be a way—you just haven’t found it yet.”
Even as I spoke, I recalled my interaction with the demon prince. He’d made similar claims—gone so far as to outright state I was bound to Bechora Knight for all eternity—adding weight to my brother’s words. The truth settled into my soul like an anchor dragging me to the deepest depths, drowning me in an unwanted bond.
“You can refuse to accept it all you want,” Rafe replied, pulling me from my thoughts. “That doesn’t make it any less real. Whoever this woman is, she’s your fated. You can spend eternity trying to fight it, or you can do as I suggested when you first called me for help. Get to know your mate. I have faith that the fates wouldn’t have given you this bond if she weren’t worthy.”
“I can’t accept this,” my throat tightened. “Dina needs me. Father—”
“To hell with Father,” Rafe snarled, his voice a growl that vibrated down the line. “He’s ruled our lives with fear long enough. It’s time you stand up to him.”
“You don’t understand,” I spat. “You ran. I’m the only one left to keep her safe. You know as well as I do—one wrong move, one sign of defiance, and he will dangle her safety in front of me like a noose.” My throat burned as the words spilled out. “Every step I take, every decision, it’s all to keep her safe. If I fail to uphold his expectations, Dina will suffer. You may be able to live with abandoning us to Father’s whims, but I can’t leave her behind the way you left us.”
Silence crackled through the line, heavy and suffocating. For a long moment, all I could hear was Rafe’s breathing—measured, forced, like he was holding himself back from unleashing the storm I knew brewed inside him.
“I didn’t abandon you,” he said at last, his tone low and ragged. “I left because it was the only way to fight back. If I’d stayed, he’d have ground me into his obedient lapdog, the same as he’s doing to you. I wouldn’t have just had the threat ofDina’s safety hanging around my neck, but yours as well.”
My jaw clenched with anger. “Easy for you to say when you’re not here. You left and nothing changed, except that I became the one choking on his leash.”
“And yet, you’re still breathing,” Rafe shot back. “You have no idea the weight I carry. The guilt that threatens to drown me because I left you there. I had no choice.” His voice cracked before he bit it back, steel sharpening his words. “Don’t mistake my absence for apathy, little brother. Everything I’ve done has been for you and Dina. I needed to leave so I could find a way to end that monster for good. I won’t stop looking until I’ve found what I need to end him. I promise you that.”
I pressed my head harder against the stone, forcing back the burn in my eyes—another weakness Father would punish me for. “If he finds out about this bond, if he discovers I’ve managed to shackle myself to a mate who isn’t powerful, he will see me as weak. You know weakness has only one price in his house.”
“He doesn’t get to decide what’s weak,” Rafe growled. “He never did. You want to keep Dina safe, stop letting him use her as a cage. She’s a child, Gabriel. She should be laughing, playing, dreaming about nonsense, not existing as the blade he holds to your throat. I swear to you, I will find a way to keep her out of his reach, but you have got to stop pretending your bond is the enemy when the real monster is the man who sired us.”
“You make it all sound so simple.” I huffed.
“It could be,” he replied softly. “Do you truly think fate would saddle you with a mate that’s a liability and not a source of strength?”
I opened my mouth to snap back, to spit another denial, but the words stuck like ash in my throat. Against my will, an image of Bechora surged to the forefront of my mind—not fragile, not weak, but standing her ground in combat class. I could still see the way she’d been knocked down, dirt smearing her face, only to rise again with that same infuriating fire blazing in her eyes. She had fought back, again and again, longpast the point most would have yielded. Stubborn. Reckless. Relentless.
“You don’t know her,” I forced out, though my voice had lost its sharpness. “She isn’t—she can’t be—”
Rafe let the silence stretch as if he sensed my denial crumbling to dust. When he spoke, it was clear he’d chosen his words deliberately. “She already is, Gabriel. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be fighting so hard to deny it. The fates don’t make mistakes, little brother. She may not be what Father would deem worthy, but what is his opinion compared to the gods?”
A shudder ran through me, and for the first time since the call began, rage gave way to something heavier: fear. Fear of my father, fear of the truth, fear of the ways he could use the bond thrumming through my veins like a second heartbeat.
“I can’t…” My voice broke, rough and weak. I swallowed hard, hating myself for it.
“You can, Gabriel.” My brother’s voice was laced with comfort. “Everything I’ve found in my search to help you tells me so. Fated bonds aren’t just a blessing; they’re a source of strength—one our kind has seemed to have forgotten. I envy you. What I wouldn’t give to be handed such a gift.”
I let out a sardonic laugh. “A gift? More like a curse.”
I could practically hear Rafe roll his eyes on the other end of the line. “Always so stubborn,” he chuckled. “Only you would start to accept the truth and then shove it away in a box.”
“I’m not—” I started, my protests cut off by my brother’s laughter. “This isn’t funny, Rafe.”
“Oh, but it is.” He breathed, reigning in his laughter. “Let me worry about Father. You stop being a stubborn ass long enough to see what’s actually in front of you.”
“And what, exactly, is it you suggest I do?” I demanded through clenched teeth. “It’s not as if I’ve been kind to her. Should I show up at her door with gifts like a love-sick puppy and beg her forgiveness?” The thought seemed preposterous.
“Not forgiveness,” Rafe countered. “Not right away. If I know you as well as I think, you’ve made a mess of things, and it willtake time to recover from it. Get to know her. Show her the real you—the one you keep hidden away so Father doesn’t discover you’re not the cold-hearted bastard he demands you be.”
