Page 125 of Veiled

“Uhm, I’m pretty sure that’s the same thing when I can no longer see you, but you’re sitting right next to me.”

He slowly fades back into his normal coloring, and I wonder if the Cheshire Cat had the same ability.

“Semantics. But as I was saying, we cannot become different beings. We can only change how we look on the outside. You’ll only be able to alter the little things like your hair length or eye color for a while."

He nudges my leg for me to put my hand back on his head.

“You’ll have to be close to me at first, and even then, the changes will exhaust you.”

“A nap sounds great,” I murmur.

“Practice sounds great,” he corrects. “And it’ll only be like this in the beginning. As the bond strengthens, and with practice, your abilities will get stronger. You will be able to control what changes, when, and for how long.”

My pulse kicks up. “That sounds…powerful.”

“You bonded an Alpha, did you think I would give you weak magic?”

“Well, no…but I also didn’t plan to bond an Alpha.”

“But we did…and that’s why it’s important you only tell the people who have to know. That includes not telling your…men.”

This feels like it’s going to be impossible, but I guess I don’t know Aiden’s. And Matt will eventually get an ability he won’t be able to tell me about either.

I hate secrets.

Rather than focusing on that, I ask the next important question, “What about our communication? How long does it take until we can hear each other from further away?”

“Right now, I can only hear you when we’re together or if your emotions spike high when we’re far away from each other. I’ll feel the sharpest edges of what you feel. But the more our bond grows, the greater the distance we’ll be able to communicate across. With time, we’ll be able to hear each other’s thoughts with clarity wherever we are, whenever we allow it.

“And once your power settles, your mind will no longer shout at me,” he adds.

“So…when you hear me, I’m shouting?”

“Constantly.”

I flush just before a gust of warm air hits my face.

“You are anxious, hungry, and pretending you are not afraid of what all of this means.”

My mouth drops open. “I…you know what? Rude.”

“You shouted it, I just listened.”

“Wait, do you always know where I am? Is our bond like a built-in tracker?”

His tail curls, tapping against the trunks of the trees behind us in amusement…Yup, just like a dog.

“I am NOT like a dog, I could eat dogs if I wanted to.”

“Oops!” I try to hold in my laugh as he pushes me with his muzzle.

“To answer your question, no, Faren, I was not gifted with Aura tracking.”

Tyr goes still then, his voice dropping lower. “There is something we need to discuss.” He pauses heavy enough to make my heart stutter. “The day I approached you in the riding grounds…when I intervened…”

I’ve been dying to ask what happened, but I’ve been too scared to upset our fresh bond, so the words have never been able to come out.

“While only aura trackers can track people, all alphas can see auras. When you were on the field that day, your aura looked dark, almost black. So when I saw you engaging with a pup and one of our females…”