Elias shrugged off his jacket and tossed it over. "Put that on before you freeze."
Corin caught it, pulled it around his shoulders. His hands were shaking. "How did you know I was here?"
"I came by your place after we talked this morning. You weren't there, but your truck was gone and I had a feeling." Elias surveyed the damage, his expression unreadable. "Looks like my feeling was right."
"She collapsed." The words came out rough, scraped raw. "Chloe. At Freya's. The soil tried to drain her. I saw her on the ground, barely conscious, and I..."
"Lost control."
"Yeah."
Elias crossed to the ruined well and crouched beside it, studying the destruction with careful eyes.
"You cracked the foundation," he said. "Might have actually done some good, accidentally. I can see the seal better now. Look."
Corin moved closer, still unsteady. Through the rubble, he could see what Elias meant. The gap in the mortar he'd found before was more visible now, the careful line where someone had chipped away at centuries-old binding.
"Still doesn't tell us who," Corin said.
"No. But it confirms what we already knew." Elias stood, brushing dust from his hands. "This was deliberate. Skilled. And whoever did it knew exactly what they were releasing."
"I'm going to find them."
"I know you are." Elias turned to face him. "But right now, you're running on rage. And rage doesn't fix land, Corin. It doesn't fix Chloe either."
He looked away, jaw tight with shame and bitterness.
"She's your mate," Elias said quietly. "I know you haven't told her yet. But she's in danger, and she doesn't understand why. Or why you're acting the way you are, why you keep showing up, why you defended her at the Mercantile."
"I can't just tell her."
"Why not?"
"Because she'll think I'm claiming her. Pressuring her. She's already dealing with accusations from half the town. The last thing she needs is some bear shifter announcing that she belongs to him."
"Is that what you'd be doing? Announcing ownership?"
Corin's hands curled into fists. "No."
"Then what would you be doing?"
Corin stared at the ruined well, at the evidence of his own loss of control, and tried to find an answer that made sense.
"I'd be telling her the truth," he said finally. "That my bear recognized her the moment I touched her skin. That I've been trying to protect her without explaining why. That I..."
"That you love her."
Corin didn't deny it because hearing it out loud made him realize the truth of it all.
"You're trying to solve two problems at once," Elias said. "The land and Chloe. But you're tangling them together in a way that's not helping either. Every time something happens toher, you lose control. Every time you lose control, you make mistakes. And mistakes are what get people hurt."
"So what am I supposed to do? Just let her suffer while I stay calm and rational?"
"No. You're supposed to give her the tools to protect herself." Elias stepped closer, his voice dropping. "Right now, she doesn't know she's your mate. She doesn't know that whoever's doing this might be targeting her specifically because of you, especially since the well being tampered with is found on your property. She's fighting blind, Corin. And you're the one keeping her that way."
The words hit harder than the cold.
"You think whoever's doing this knows about the bond?"
