My wolf keeps pace better than anticipated, but the strength that surged through me begins to flicker. The deeper we run, the more unstable it feels, almost like a glitching image that won’t fix itself.
Then, it’s like the rug has been pulled out from under me.
My legs tremble, my lungs burn, and from somewhere deep in my chest, I whine.
Not now… gods, not now.
The bond is supposed to make this easier. It’s supposed to give us both a surge of energy and power. But I wasn’t normal to begin with, and our bond was forced. Rushed. It hasn’t been nurtured by love and genuine care.
The strength leaves my limbs faster than I can try to recover it, and pain tears through my limbs, forcing me to stumble out of my wolf form. Everything spins, and the coldground slams into my knees as my bones reknit themselves, and skin replaces the pelt I barely had any time to live in.
I’m heaving in shallow breaths before I can fully register that I’m naked on the ground, arms caging over my chest.
Before I can regain my bearings, a shape breaks away from the trees, large and approaching fast.
Caleb shifts mid-stride as if it’s as easy as breathing for him, and he’s at my side in a moment’s notice. He’s all tattoos, broad chest, and gently huffed breaths as he crouches with a thread of alarm stitched through his features.
“Lila,” he says, voice rougher than usual. “What happened?”
Gritting my teeth, feeling such an aggressive strike to my pride as I lay there in front of him, I avert my gaze. “Nothing…”
His skin is hot against mine as he slips an arm beneath my back, angling me toward him. “Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not a soldier you can order around.”
“No, you’re not. You’re my mate,” Caleb says, lacking the distaste I have for the title. He carefully adjusts his hold on me like I’m something fragile, and it stirs something confusing in me. “And I want to know what happened.”
Silence settles like a heavy thing between us, laden with everything we haven’t addressed. Everything we lost, and everything we both pretended wasn’t there at one time or another.
I want to shake him off as I attempt to sit up, feeling every point of contact between us, but the other part of me wants to lean in, craving more of him. I don’t give in to either.
After a long moment, I let go of a breath and mutter the very words I don’t want to admit. “Ever since you rejected me before, my wolf has been weaker than usual…”
To my surprise, Caleb goes still. Deathly still.
The forest stirs around us to fill in that silence, broken up only by the distant howls of the pack while they continue.
He looks almost helpless for a blink, eyes softer than usual as he searches for the words. His voice reaches me, sounding raw. “You never told me. I had no idea.”
Despite my weakened state, I scoff. “I didn’t realise I needed to make a list of things to tell you after you disappeared.”
Caleb flinches at that.
Looking away, my chest aches at the memories. “In the time you’ve been away, I shifted only a handful of times, and every time, it felt wrong somehow. Like my wolf was afraid to come out again.”
His eyes soften. “Lila… if I had known—”
“You didn’t need to, and you didn’t want to,” I mutter, finally pushing him away as I stand on wobbly legs. “You made that very clear.”
Caleb opens his mouth to speak, but he closes it again, not denying it. Something like grief flickers within his eyes as he holds that crouched position a moment longer.
“Look… you got what you wanted. The ceremony is over, you’re the Alpha now, and everything is done. Can we just go to the cabin and finish this stupid tradition?”
Despite everything, his brows pull together, sounding vaguely offended. “It’s not stupid.”
“It feels stupid.”
The words don’t feel as mature as I’d like them to, but I’m too drained and raw to care. Far too aware of the way that irritating bond pulls in my chest just from being near him.
