But there is another way. One that nobody else would ever detect.
The bond between us crackles and snaps like an exposed wire from the fight’s strain. It’s fragile and sensitive after the last few days, and ever since he learned the truth about Astrid. We’ve barely spoken and barely looked at each other, but the connection is still there. Not broken, despite how shattering it all felt.
Right now, it’s all I have.
Closing my eyes, I shove the fear away, pushing aside the guilt, the shame, and the anger. All of it falls away until all that’s left is the pulsing tether linking me to him.
I follow it, and at first, I feel Caleb’s pain flooding it, crashing against me, and burning. But his fury is quickly behind it, blinding and roaring. Beneath it still, there’s the softness I found myself clinging to even when I didn’t want to accept our connection. It’s steady and warm, calling to me even now.
His instincts are to protect me and Astrid with his life, even while he bleeds. Even while Dawson is doing everything in his power to tear him apart.
I don’t deserve it, and maybe I never will, but I take that warmth and double it, sending it straight back down the connection, weaving it with all the things I haven’t allowed myself to feel fully.
Hope, unfiltered trust, and a kind of devotion that can only come from a fated bond.
Most of all, love.
Even when it’s scary, and even through every risk that comes with putting my heart on the line all over again, and even when it has been broken before. To have every faith that he will guard it like his own, and the same way he guards Astrid. His flesh and blood.
In a way, we have always been one. But now, I need him to feel it straight from me. I need him to feel my forgiveness for the past, and to know I accept that he will always be the one for me.
He is the only one who can care for us so selfishly, and I believe that so completely now.
As I give and give, magic flickers through the bond. It isn’t a blast of wild energy like Astrid’s, but it’s older and direct, not leaving room for error.
Warmth ignites in my chest, humming through every inch of my body, and I press against the bond even harder.
For a beat, nothing happens.
Then I feel Caleb’s startled reaction through the channel, like a surge of clarity, as if he’s waking up to something so divine, even he can’t ignore it.
He feels me, and he feels what I’m offering him.
Despite his views and preconceived notions of magic, he accepts it because somewhere inside himself, he trusts me too. Even after everything, he’s there, standing at the end of the bond waiting for me. Drinking in that pure love without a second thought.
My throat tightens, but I don’t break my focus.
With a rush of renewed vigour, Caleb twists beneath Dawson’s oppressive hold, muscles rippling as he lunges upward, snapping his teeth around his foreleg. The other Alpha howls out, forced to release his grip and stumble back to try and recover.
But Caleb doesn’t leave him the room to recuperate, already slamming into him with so much force that the Wraith Peak wolves recoil. The two of them collide with the ground as Caleb weighs him down, enduring the struggle beneath him.
He’s faster now, and stronger too.
Then, Caleb’s teeth sink into the side of Dawson’s neck.
It isn’t a lethal bite, but it’s a dominant one, and one that evokes a flicker of uncertainty in his opponent’s eyes.
Dawson tries to twist and snap his jaws, desperate for some kind of silver lining, but Caleb’s insistent, slamming him down again as his claws dig in deep. He snarls louder against his neck, forcing his body to lower instinctively, caving to that undeniable command.
A sign of submission, even if he hasn’t fully given in yet.
He’s trying to fight it still, but it’s undeniable.
Releasing a shaky breath, I press a trembling hand to my sternum, and through the exhaustion, my knees feel weaker than before, like my energy has been syphoned out.
But I don’t stop. Even if I’ve pushed too far, risking us both, I keep a tight grip on the bond and flood it with as much light and emotion as I can.
Even if it isn’t over, the tide has turned, and Caleb is winning.
