Chapter 20
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Knox
My canines pierced Lina’s neck gently, finding the exact spot where I’d bitten her during our night together. But this time I bit deeper, with purpose beyond pleasure. The moment my teeth broke skin, the mate bond surged back with the force of a lightning strike.
The connection I’d spent years trying to forget slammed into me at full intensity. No longer the dying thread I’d been nursing, but alive and burning between us. I pushed my Alpha power into the wound, chasing the black poison through her veins with single-minded determination.
She was mine to protect. Mine to save. Mine to lose if I failed.
The rogue’s poison fought back, clinging to her bloodstream with malicious intent, but I was stronger, angrier, more desperate. I flooded her system with healing energy, burning away the infection that was trying to steal her from me, from our cubs.
“Is he hurting Mama?” the little girl whispered from somewhere to my left, her small voice wavering between fear and hope.
“No,” the boy answered with quiet awe. “He’s making the bad stuff go away. See? Mama’s cheeks are pink.”
He was right. The deathly gray pallor was fading, replaced by healthy color. Her lips went from blue-tinged to soft pink. The black veins retreated, chased away by the claiming bite that should have happened years ago.
The mate bond blazed between us, no longer weak but a rope of golden fire connecting our souls. Every heartbeat synchronized. Every breath matched. I could feel her fighting to return, her spirit reaching for mine even in unconsciousness.
I held the bite, pouring everything I had into saving her. My strength. My power. My pathetic apologies. My promise to do better. Everything I should have given her from the start.
Her breathing hitched, then smoothed out. The racing heartbeat calmed to a steady rhythm. The fever broke, leaving her skin damp but cool.
“That’s it, sweetheart,” I whispered against her throat. “Come back to us.”
I released the bite carefully, licking the wound to seal it. The puncture marks closed immediately, leaving only faint scars that marked her as claimed. As mine. Finally, officially, irreversibly mine.
Her breathing was steady now, heartbeat strong and sure. The poison was gone, evicted from her body by the mate bond that wouldn’t tolerate any threat to her. But she remained unconscious, her body exhausted from the healing process.
I couldn’t let go. My arms locked around her, cradling her against my chest while tears I didn’t know I was crying dripped onto her dark hair. She was alive. My mate was alive. The mother of my cubs was going to survive.
“Mama okay?” the girl asked, crawling closer on the bed. Her little nose wrinkled as she sniffed at me curiously, no longer afraid of the stranger who’d just bitten her mother.
“Yes, little one,” I managed through the tightness in my throat. “Mama’s going to be okay.”
My daughter. The word felt impossible and precious. This tiny person with Lina’s dark hair and my stubborn chin was my daughter. Mine to protect, to raise, to disappoint when she realized what a failure her father was.
“What’s your name?” I asked softly, needing to know what Lina had called our children.
“I’m Thea,” she said proudly. “And that’s Rowan. He’s my brother.”
Thea and Rowan. Perfect names for perfect children I’d never known existed.
Rowan moved closer too, studying me with those gray eyes that were so much like looking in a mirror. He touched my hand where it rested on Lina’s shoulder, the gesture careful but not fearful.
“Your wolf is still sad,” he observed quietly, tilting his head. “But not as sad as before.”
I stared at my son, this perceptive, intelligent child who was already showing Alpha traits at four years old. He could sense my wolf’s emotional state, could read the pain I thought I was hiding.
“I...” Words failed me. What did you say to the son you’d never known existed? The son you’d abandoned before he was born? “I’m just glad you’re all okay.”
“Are you going to stay?” Thea asked with the directness only children possessed. “Mama gets sad sometimes. At night when she thinks we’re sleeping. Maybe you could make her not sad?”
The knife of guilt twisted deeper. Lina had been sad. Of course she had. Raising twins alone, never knowing why I’d rejected her, probably thinking she’d done nothing wrong. Which she hadn’t. She’d been perfect.
“I... that’s up to your mama,” I said carefully.
Thea seemed to accept this, curling up against Lina’s side with the natural trust of a child. “I’m here, Mama,” she whispered, patting her mother’s hand.
Noah cleared his throat from the doorway, and I looked up to find him watching us with an unreadable expression. The earlier rage had cooled to something worse: disappointment.
“She’ll sleep for hours while the bond settles and her body adjusts,” he said, voice carefully neutral. “The bite will stop the feral poison from reaching her heart. She’ll heal faster now. Maybe develop some enhanced senses, better hearing or smell. Nothing dramatic, but enough to notice.”
I nodded, unable to look away from my newly discovered family. My arms tightened around Lina instinctively, and both children pressed closer in response.
“I should have listened to you,” I said quietly, the words inadequate but necessary. “Should’ve made Blake proud.”
“Yes,” Noah agreed flatly. “You should have.”
The simple agreement hurt more than any accusation. Because he was right. Blake would have been disgusted by my choices. He’d believed in mates, in family, in following your heart even when it was hard. Everything I’d failed to do.
“I spent years watching you waste away from the broken bond,” Noah continued, leaning against the doorframe.
“Watching you grow weaker, more feral, more lost. Do you know how many times I almost went to check on her? To make sure she was okay? But I respected your idiotic wishes. Told myself it wasn’t my place. ”
The weight of those lost years crushed down on me. My children’s first words. First steps. First everything. Gone.
“I’m glad at least I kept monitoring the Pine Valley woods,” Noah added. “The rogue activity has been increasing. That’s how I knew about the attack. Got there just after it happened, found her trail of blood leading back to town.”
“Thank you,” I said, meaning it with every fiber of my being. “For saving them when I couldn’t.”
“When you wouldn’t,” he corrected. “There’s a difference.”
Rowan had climbed into my lap at some point, studying me with intense focus. Thea was humming softly to her unconscious mother, a lullaby I didn’t recognize. My family. Broken and complicated and perfect.
“When she wakes, she’ll decide what happens next,” Noah said, his tone making it clear this wasn’t a suggestion. “Whether she stays, whether she lets you near the children, whether she forgives you. And you’ll respect whatever she chooses.”
“I understand,” I said immediately. “But she needs monitoring for a few days first. The bond is new, her body’s adjusting. She can’t just leave until we know she’s stable.”
Noah’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t use that as an excuse to-”
“I’m not,” I cut him off. “It’s medical fact. A new mate bond, especially after trauma, needs time to settle. A few days minimum. After that...” I swallowed hard. “After that, whatever she wants.”
“No.” Noah’s voice went hard. “Not ‘whatever she wants’ as some grand gesture. You’ll actually do it this time.
If she says she never wants to see you again, you disappear.
If she says you can only see the kids supervised, you accept it.
If she wants to return to Pine Valley and pretend this never happened, you let her go. ”
Each scenario he painted was worse than the last. But I nodded anyway. “Her choice. Always should have been.”
“Good.” Noah’s expression softened marginally. “I’ll go make some food for the kids. They need to eat.”
“Aunt Vivi makes better sandwiches,” Thea informed him seriously. “But yours should be okay too.”
Noah actually smiled at that. “High praise. What kind does Aunt Vivi make?”
As they discussed sandwich preferences, I held my family close and tried not to think about how temporary this might be. Lina would wake up. She’d remember what I’d done, how I’d hurt her. She’d have every right to take our children and never look back.
But for now, in this moment, I had everything I’d ever wanted in my arms. My mate, breathing steadily against my chest. My daughter, singing soft songs. My son, whose weight in my lap felt like absolution I didn’t deserve.
“Daddy?” Rowan said quietly, the word stealing my breath. “Is that what you are?”
I couldn’t speak around the lump in my throat. How did he know? How did this tiny, perfect person know?
“You smell like us,” he explained, as if reading my mind. “Like family. Like how Mama smells like us. That makes you Daddy, right?”
“I...” I swallowed hard. “We can ask your mama once she wakes up, okay?”
He nodded solemnly, accepting this condition. “Okay. Daddy who makes Mama better.”
Daddy who makes Mama better. If only it were that simple. If only I could heal years of hurt with one bite. If only I deserved the trust shining in those gray eyes.
But I’d take it. Whatever scraps of forgiveness Lina might throw my way, whatever moments with my children she’d allow, I’d take it all and be grateful.
Because the alternative - going back to that hollow existence without them - wasn’t an option anymore.
I’d tasted what I’d thrown away, and I’d spend the rest of my life trying to earn it back.
“I know,” I whispered, pulling Lina closer and breathing in her scent. “Her choice. Always should have been.”