32. Chapter Thirty-Two
~Leo~
The moment we stepped out into the hallway, I opened a mind-link to my Alpha and the security Delta without breaking stride.
Vaughan. Darius.
The connection snapped into place almost immediately, both of them answering at once.
Here, Darius confirmed.
Progress? Vaughan asked.
We’ve spoken to the reaper, I sent, keeping my thoughts as clear and concise as possible. She’s contained, but not willingly.
She? Darius repeated in disbelief, and I understood the surprise. It hadn’t occurred to me that we might be dealing with a woman either.
Yes. She told us that she’s not here for Kalo. She’s here for me.
A brief pause followed as the weight of that statement sank in.
Explain, Vaughan ordered.
Apparently, I disrupted the natural order when I saved him. Now, one of us has to die, probably me, but our bond isn’t complete and that’s interfering with her job. She can’t act until it’s resolved.
That time, the silence stretched longer as they both processed that development.
What do you need? Darius finally asked.
Felix, Calista and I are doing some research. Kalo stayed in the room with the reaper. There are men outside the door, but…
But I wanted our pack’s best warriors there in case Kalo needed help, and thankfully, they both understood that without me needing to say it.
We’ll be there shortly, Vaughan promised. Let us know as soon as you have more information.
The link closed as we reached the bottom of the stairs, and I exhaled slowly, trying to steady the tightness in my chest. Beside me, Felix and Calista were already making plans, their earlier tension shifting towards focus.
“The library,” Felix instructed me. “If there’s anything on incomplete bonds, it’ll be there.”
The pack house library sat on the ground floor, tucked into a quiet corner that always seemed removed from the rest of the building.
It housed the pack’s most important archives and documents, rather than the paperbacks and comic books that filled the town library.
Nobody went to this library for fun, and the scent of old paper and polished wood greeted us as Felix flipped on the light.
“I’ll check the digital archives,” Calista said, already moving towards the desk in the far corner where the computer sat. “They’re quicker to search.”
Felix made a soft noise of agreement, though he was already heading in the opposite direction, towards the towering shelves that held the oldest volumes.
“Faster is good, but not necessarily as thorough,” he said, running a hand along the spines. “Half of what we need won’t be digitized.”
He pulled a thick, leather-bound book from the shelf and handed it to me without ceremony.
“Start there.”
I took it from him, flipped it open, and immediately sneezed.
Felix snorted. “Did I forget to mention they’d be a little dusty?”
“Very helpful,” I muttered, rubbing at my nose before turning my full attention to the pages.
The text inside was dense, handwritten in places and annotated in others. Generations of wolves had added to it, their observations layered over one another in ink that had faded from black to brown.
I flipped through the pages until I found the heading I was looking for: Mate Bonds.
I skimmed the chapters, my eyes catching on familiar terms before moving deeper into the less commonly referenced sections.
Behind me, Calista’s fingers flew over the keyboard.
“Most documented bonds follow the same progression,” she said. “Recognition, acceptance, marking, and completion.”
“Completion being the point where the bond stabilizes fully,” Felix added, pulling another book from the shelf. “From there, only death can break it.”
I nodded absently as I scanned another passage. That much I knew, but the middle stages were less clear. “What about before completion?”
Felix flipped through his own book. “Wolves in a marked but uncompleted bond will feel heightened sensitivity, emotional bleed-through, physical attraction and instinctive protectiveness.”
Before the past week, those would have been simply words on a page to me, but now, I knew all too well how they felt.
“Incomplete bonds are common enough after recognition,” he added. “And in some cases, there are significant delays between acceptance and marking, but usually, marking leads directly into completion of the bond.”
“Unless something interferes,” Calista finished, glancing up from the screen. Her gaze flicked to me briefly before returning to her search.
I swallowed the unease that settled in my chest and kept reading. There were pages on variations in the process, delayed bonds like Amanda and Troy’s, rejected bonds, and even fractured ones that were broken on purpose after the marking, but nothing that matched exactly what we were dealing with.
A soft knock sounded at the doorway and we all looked up. Evalina stood there, a tray balanced carefully in her hands and three steaming cups resting on its surface.
“I thought you might need these. It sounds like you’re not going to bed any time soon.”
Felix let out a quiet breath of relief as she reached him. “You’re a lifesaver,” he said, taking one of the cups and giving her a quick kiss.
Calista took the second cup, offering Evalina a grateful smile before returning her attention to the screen.
I accepted mine last, the warmth of it grounding me as I wrapped my hands around the mug. “Thank you.”
Evalina inclined her head before slipping quietly back out, and Felix let out a low whistle of admiration. “She has a way of always knowing exactly what I need when I need it, even though we can’t mind-link. It’s incredible.”
“The mate bond is special,” Calista agreed, and they both shot me a look that could only be described as pity.
Our bond is special too, Silo muttered in my head.
I don’t think they’re suggesting it isn’t. It’s just that we won’t have it for very much longer if we can’t find a way around this.
We all went back to our searching, but only a couple of minutes later, Calista sighed. “I don’t think I’m using the right terminology. The results I’m getting aren’t helpful.”
“Try ‘forced bonds’,” Felix suggested.
My head snapped up at the word ‘forced’, and Felix grimaced.
“We all know that’s not what this is, but it might be the closest scenario.”
Reluctantly, I kept reading, adjusting my scanning to look for the word ‘forced’. It only took three more pages before I spotted something.
“I think this might be helpful… hold on.”
I squinted down at the page while Calista and Felix both gave me their full attention.
“In situations of coercion, manipulation, or outright force, a mate may be marked before accepting the bond. The marking confers almost all the benefits of a completed bond but is inherently unstable.”
Coercion. Manipulation. The words felt sour on my tongue. Maybe that hadn’t been my intention, but when I remembered the way Kalo looked at me when he realized I’d marked him, it must have felt similar from his perspective.
I didn’t even realize I’d stopped reading until Calista’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. “Context matters, Leo. Intent matters. Don’t blame yourself.”
Felix nodded in agreement. “Let’s focus on the next part.”
Right. I returned to the text.
“Completion can only be achieved with the agreement of both parties, so if a marked wolf wishes to sever the bond, they simply need to withhold agreement. If not completed, the bond will dissolve at the… shit.”
My eyes had skipped ahead, making my stomach sink.
“What?” Felix asked.
“How long?” Calista added.
“At the next full moon.” I looked up at them both, watching the realization hitting them just as it had me. “That’s two days from now.”
The words felt even heavier out loud than they had in my head. Two days to make a decision that would determine which of us lived, or to find a loophole. It wasn’t much time at all.
I looked back down at the page, rereading the line as though it might change, but it refused to budge. The mark would fade and the bond would collapse, and when it did, the choice would be made for us.
Before I could fully process that thought, Vaughan’s voice cut through the mind-link. Leo.
Every muscle in my body tensed. I’m here.
Get back upstairs. Now.
His tight, urgent tone sent a spike of cold straight through my chest.
“What is it?” Felix asked, rising with me though I hadn’t even realized I was already on my feet.
“That was Vaughan. Something’s wrong.”