Chapter 24 Riley #2
An hour later, there was a knock on my door. I’d managed to drag myself to the couch by then, wrapped in a blanket, shivering despite not being cold. The heat under my skin was getting worse, not better. I felt feverish and frozen at the same time.
“It’s open,” I called.
Aedan walked in. The grumpy doctor from before, the one who’d diagnosed my “cold” and said humans got them. He looked exactly as I remembered: severe, no-nonsense, perpetually annoyed at the universe for existing.
“You look terrible,” he said.
“Thanks. I feel terrible.” At least we agreed on that much.
He knelt beside me, pulled out medical equipment from a bag I hadn’t noticed he was carrying. Took my temperature, checked my pulse, shined a light in my eyes. His movements were efficient, clinical.
“I know what you are,” I said while he worked. “Caelan told me. You’re a wolf. From Duskmere.”
Aedan paused. Looked at me with new interest. “He told you everything?”
“Everything.”
“Ah.” He resumed his examination. “That explains some things.”
“What’s wrong with me? Is this wolf-related?”
“Tell me your symptoms. All of them. From the beginning.”
I did. The nausea that started weeks ago. The fatigue that wouldn’t go away. The heat that had been building gradually, burning beneath the surface. The way the bond felt stretched and wrong. The constant ache in my chest that I thought was just missing Caelan.
Aedan listened, his expression growing more concerned with each symptom I described.
When I finished, he inhaled deeply. Then leaned closer and inhaled again, near my neck, my hair.
“What are you...”
“FUCK.”
He pulled back, cursing loudly. His eyes had gone wide, his composure completely shattered.
“We need to go to Duskmere,” he said. “Now. Right now.”
“What? Why? What’s wrong with me?”
“You never told me you were a wolf,” he said accusingly.
“We discovered it after we saw you. After Caelan claimed me.”
“He claimed you.” Aedan’s voice was flat. “He claimed you, and then he left for two months. Without you.”
“Yes? There was a war...”
“I’m going to kill him.” Aedan was already moving, gathering his things, pulling me to my feet. “I’m going to actually kill him. The idiot. The absolute idiot.”
“Aedan, WHAT IS HAPPENING?”
I tried to stand on my own. My legs buckled immediately. Aedan caught me, cursed again, and swept me up into his arms.
“You’re going into heat,” he said grimly.
“I’m going into WHAT?”
“Heat. It’s a wolf thing. After a claiming bite, the mate usually goes into heat within days. Sometimes weeks. It’s the body’s response to the bond being sealed. The need to... complete the connection.”
“Complete the connection,” I repeated weakly. “You mean...”
“I mean your body is demanding your mate. And without him here...” He shook his head.
“It’s intense for normal wolves, but for you?
You’re not just any wolf. You’re a dormant wolf who just awakened.
Your body is reacting even more strongly because it’s trying to fully integrate the wolf and the bond at the same time.
And without your mate here to help you through it, you’re going to keep getting worse. ”
“Worse how?”
“Fever. Pain. The heat will keep building until...” He didn’t finish.
“Until what?”
“Until it becomes too much for your body to handle.”
Eventually. That was the word he didn’t say. Eventually, it could kill me.
“How long do I have?” I asked.
“I don’t know. You’re unprecedented. A dormant wolf awakened by a claiming bite? It’s never happened before. I don’t know the timeline. I don’t know anything except that you need your mate, and you need him now.”
My body was getting heavier, colder, even as that strange heat built inside me.
Aedan grabbed a blanket, wrapped it around me, and headed for the door.
“Where are we going?” I managed.
“To your idiot mate. Before you die from his stupidity.”
And then Aedan ran. Not jogged, not hurried. Full sprint, me clutched against his chest, blanket wrapped around me. I could barely keep my eyes open, but I was aware of the world blurring past. Streets, then trees, then forest.
Being carried like a damsel in distress by a man I barely knew while dying from supernatural horniness. My life had really taken some turns.
“How long,” I mumbled.
“The portal is in the woods. Twenty minutes if I push.”
Twenty minutes was forever. The heat was getting worse, pulsing under my skin in waves. But I was also freezing, shivering in his arms, teeth chattering, completely contradictory sensations assaulting my body.
“Your scent,” Aedan said through gritted teeth. “It’s getting stronger.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean...” He took a breath, adjusted his grip on me. “Heat makes you... attractive. To male wolves. It’s a biological thing. Your body is putting out pheromones designed to attract a mate. I’m trying very hard not to be affected.”
Oh. Well, that was horrifying.
“Sorry,” I managed.
“Not your fault. His.” Aedan’s voice was tight with strain. “When I get my hands on that idiot...”
We burst through the tree line into deeper forest. The path was barely visible, winding between massive oaks and ancient pines. Aedan navigated it without hesitation, clearly familiar with the route.
His grip on me was getting stronger, tighter. I could feel the tension in his body, the rigid control.
“Almost there,” he said. More to himself than to me.
And then I saw it.
A tree. But not just any tree. A massive oak, centuries old, its trunk wide enough to drive a car through. And at its base, the bark was glowing. Shimmering with an ethereal light that pulsed in a steady rhythm.
“The portal,” I breathed.
“Hold on.”
Aedan ran straight into the light, and the world dissolved.
I was spinning, weightless. Reality itself seemed to twist around me, inside me, through me.
It was the strangest sensation, being nowhere and everywhere at once, existing in the space between spaces.
Colors swirled that I didn’t have names for.
Time stretched and compressed. I couldn’t tell if we’d been falling for seconds or hours.
And then we hit ground.
Aedan stepped through, and my stomach rebelled immediately. I lurched in his arms, and he barely had time to turn me before I was vomiting on the stone floor.
Great. First impression in a new dimension: puking. Really nailing this.
“You’re fine,” he said, patting my back awkwardly. “You’re fine, you’re fine, you’re fine. Portal travel is hard on humans. On everyone, really.”
I was absolutely not fine. But at least I was done throwing up.
He gathered me again, adjusted the blanket, and started moving. I managed to look around.
We were inside. A massive stone corridor stretched before us, lit by torches in iron sconces. Everything was gray and cold, cold enough that I could see my breath. The architecture was ancient, medieval. Arched ceilings, carved stonework, tapestries on the walls depicting battles and hunts.
We passed a window. I caught a glimpse of the outside world.
Snow. So much snow, white blanketing everything as far as I could see. Mountains in the distance, their peaks lost in clouds. A winter wonderland, beautiful and brutal. The sky was gray, promising more snow.
Duskmere. I was actually in Duskmere. In another dimension. In a werewolf kingdom.
But I couldn’t appreciate it. The pain was starting now, cramps radiating through my abdomen, my back, my legs. I whimpered, curling tighter into Aedan’s arms.
“Fuck,” I grunted.
“I know. I know. We’re almost there.”
We passed people, wolves I assumed. They stopped and stared as Aedan rushed past. I was dimly aware of their expressions shifting. Confusion at the strange woman in the arms of the royal physician. Then recognition as they caught my scent. Then hunger. Raw, undisguised hunger.
“Holy fuck,” Aedan muttered. And then he was running faster.
Footsteps behind us. More wolves, following. Not attacking, but following, drawn by the call I couldn’t control.
“Get back!” Aedan snarled over his shoulder. “She’s mated! She’s the prince’s mate!”
That slowed some of them. Others kept following, unable to help themselves.
We burst through a set of doors into an empty room, a bedroom maybe. Wrong room. Aedan cursed, spun, exited again. More corridor. More wolves now, a small crowd forming, keeping pace.
“PATT!”
Aedan’s yell echoed off the stone walls. Up ahead, a man turned. Tall, broad, blond hair, familiar features. He looked...
He looked like Caelan. The same jaw, the same build. But younger, maybe. More uptight.
“What the hell is going on?” the man demanded, stalking toward us. “And why are so many people...” He stopped, sniffed, and his eyes went wide.
“Who...?” he started.
“CAELAN,” Aedan interrupted. “WHERE?”
The man, Patt, looked at me. Really looked. Understanding dawned.
“Follow me.”
And then we were all running. Patt leading, Aedan following with me in his arms, and behind us, a growing crowd of wolves who couldn’t seem to help themselves. The stone corridors blurred together, torchlight dancing on the walls, cold air biting at my exposed face.
I was whimpering now. Couldn’t help it. The pain was everywhere, waves of it crashing through my body, each one worse than the last. I’d never felt anything this intense. My entire system was screaming for someone, and the absence of him was literally tearing me apart.
The wolf inside me was howling. Mate. Mate. MATE. She wanted him with a desperation that matched my own, and her need was amplifying mine until I could barely think.
We burst through a final set of doors into a war room.
Maps covered every surface. A massive table dominated the center, figures arranged on it in formations, battle plans being discussed. Around the table stood at least a dozen wolves, men and women in armor and finery, all turning at the interruption.
A woman with silver hair and ice-cold eyes. An older man with Caelan’s jawline and an expression of absolute authority. Soldiers, advisors, generals.
But I didn’t see any of them. I saw him. Caelan.
He was at the head of the table, standing, frozen mid-gesture. He looked different, harder, older somehow. Two months of war had carved new lines into his face. There was blood on his sleeve, dirt on his boots, dark circles under his eyes.
He looked exhausted, battle-worn, stretched to his limits. And he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
His nostrils flared. His eyes flashed amber and his hands clenched, claws extending from his fingertips.
He was shaking, trembling with the effort of holding himself back. The wolf was trying to break free. I could see it, could feel it through the bond that suddenly roared back to life, a fire rekindled after months of embers.
The connection slammed into me, his emotions flooding through and mixing with mine. Rage, relief, fear, love. So much love it hurt.
And beneath all of that, a possessive fury so intense it made my breath catch.
“WHY THE FUCK DOES MY MATE SMELL LIKE YOU, AEDAN?”
The room went silent. Every wolf froze. The silver-haired woman, who I realized must be his mother, looked between us with dawning comprehension. The older man, his father the king, started to speak.
But I didn’t hear him, because despite the pain, despite the heat, despite everything...
I almost laughed. Of course he noticed that I smelled of another man. Possessive bastard. I’d missed him so much.