Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
LINDSAY
Nolan’s heartbeat is still racing under my cheek, wild and stunned and impossibly sweet. He hasn’t stopped holding me. One hand stays tangled in my hair, the other curled at the small of my back like he’s afraid I’ll vanish if he lets go.
I could stay like this.
I want to stay like this.
I breathe him in. Let myself feel safe for one perfect second.
But then—something shifts.
A ripple tears through the bond tethered inside me like lightning through silk. Hot, jagged, wrong. Not just a flare—this is deeper. A violent unrooting. Like something sacred was just ripped out of the earth and left exposed.
I jolt upright. My breath catches. Nolan’s arms loosen instinctively. “Linds?”
I press a palm to my chest, trying to breathe around the sudden hollow there. “He’s—” I shake my head. “Something’s wrong.”
Nolan tenses immediately. “What is it?”
I press a hand to my sternum, trying to steady the way my body suddenly aches. Not physically. Not completely. This pain is something else. A psychic tear down the middle of me.
“I don’t know,” I whisper. “Something just… snapped. I felt it.”
His brows draw in. “Felt what?”
I shake my head, already swinging my legs over the bench.
“Raiden. He’s in pain. I need to find him,” I say softly.
Nolan is up beside me in an instant, tugging on his pants as I get my clothes back on. “Do you know where he is?”
I shake my head again, heart pounding, the echo of Raiden’s pain still clawing at the inside of my chest. “No. But I can feel him. It’s like—something inside him just got torn apart.”
Nolan’s jaw tightens, worry flickering behind his eyes. “Should I come with you?”
The question is gentle. He doesn’t try to stop me or get defensive and jealous. How did I get so lucky?
“I… think I need to go alone,” I say, my voice barely above a breath. “He won’t want to be seen like this. Not by anyone.”
Nolan nods slowly. “Okay.”
He stoops to grab my shoes, placing them at my feet, then shrugs into his own jacket. “At least let me walk you out. I’ll stay close, just in case.”
My throat tightens. “Thank you.”
He presses a kiss to my temple—soft and lingering. “Let’s go. Before you explode.”
I flash him a watery smile, then bolt for the door, and he’s right behind me.
My magic is still scrambled from before—too new, too raw—but the thread between me and Raiden pulses faintly under my skin. It’s not a training bond, not anymore. Not officially. But it’s something. And whatever it is—it’s bleeding.
I follow it.
Through the darkened halls of the Academy, past shuttered windows and empty classrooms, past wards that hum with warning but part just enough to let me through. It pulls me like a compass, like a second heartbeat, straight to the temple at the edge of the stone gardens.
And I know—before I see him—he’s inside.
Alone.
“He’s in there,” I say, coming to a stop and glancing at Nolan.
He nods and pushes his hands into his jean pockets. “I’ll be out here if you need me.”
I let out a breath and press a quick kiss to his lips and then slip inside the temple. The moment I step past the threshold, the air shifts.
Cool. Still. Almost sacred.
The temple is small, stone-walled and hollow-feeling, lit only by a few flickering lanterns set into alcoves near the altar. I let the door ease shut behind me, my footsteps quiet on the worn floor as I move toward the figure at the center.
Raiden.
He’s on his knees, shoulders bowed forward, hands braced on his legs like he might collapse entirely if he moves. His head is bent, hair falling over his face, and even from behind, I can feel the way grief clings to him like mist. Heavy. Suffocating.
He doesn’t look up as I approach. But he knows I’m here in the same way I can feel his pain. I sink to the floor in front of him, not touching him yet. The silence stretches, deep and thick. Then I reach out and wrap my arms around him, tugging him into me.
He exhales—shaky, broken—and leans into me like something inside him finally gives way. His arms come around me, and he buries his head into my shoulder. I hold him tighter.
We stay like that for a long time.
No questions. No explanations.
Just breathing.
When I finally speak, my voice is quiet, barely more than a breath. “What happened?”
Raiden’s fingers twitch against my back. For a moment, I don’t think he’ll answer.
Then—“I’ve been cast out.”
His voice is hoarse. Empty. Like the words scraped their way up from a place he doesn’t want me to see.
I go still, heart catching. “Raiden…”
He doesn’t elaborate. Doesn’t explain who or why or what that even means. But I can feel the pain in the spaces he leaves blank.
I slide my hand up to his nape, threading my fingers gently into his hair. “You’re not alone.”
He lets out a shudder of a breath. His hand moves to the back of my neck, mirroring my actions.
“I know,” he says.
Raiden doesn’t say anything else.
But his hands stay on me—one cradling the back of my neck, the other curled at my waist—and there’s something trembling in him that hasn’t eased, even with me here. Not quite.
I pull back just slightly. Just enough to look at him.
His forehead rests against mine now, his eyes closed. Like he’s afraid if he opens them, I’ll be gone. Like he’s still bracing for another blow.
I lift a hand and trace his jaw with my fingertips.
That’s when he opens his eyes.
And it hits me—all at once—how raw they are. Still that beautiful amber, but now they are vulnerable and so full of things he doesn’t know how to say. For someone who can shift into something powerful enough to tear through enemies… he looks breakable.
His gaze flickers down. My mouth. Then back up again, slower this time. Almost hesitant.
“Can I kiss you?” he whispers.
My breath catches.
Because I want that. I want him. Not just the kiss—though the thought makes my skin tingle—but this, too. This moment where he lets me see the part of him no one else ever gets close to.
But—
Nolan.
My heart stutters again, this time for a different reason.
Because I’m still wrapped in the warmth of Nolan’s arms in my memory. His kiss still on my lips. His trust, his sweetness, his everything—still echoing inside me.
And Kael. Distant and sharp-edged, but still tethered to my blood, to something deep and dangerous and real.
They all want me. Maybe not outright. Maybe not in the same way. But they’ve made it clear—none of them are stepping back.
I close my eyes for a second, sorting through it all.
Is it wrong?
They haven’t made me choose. They all seem to understand something I haven’t fully admitted to myself—that this isn’t simple. That I feel for each of them in different ways. That this connection between us is bigger than just a crush or a moment of weakness.
Still, I don’t want to hurt anyone. Least of all Nolan, who gave me something that mattered today.
So… is this cheating?
If they all know?
If they all feel it too?
I don’t know.
But I do know Raiden is watching me like I’m something precious. Like he needs the answer to survive this moment. Not because he’s demanding it—but because he would never ask again if I said no.
I swallow hard. My voice is barely a whisper. “…Yeah.”
His brows twitch, a flicker of surprise—but not hesitation.
I nod, just once. “You can kiss me.”
Raiden doesn’t move right away.
He just stares at me—like he’s memorizing the exact way I said it. The sound. The shape of my mouth. Then slowly, reverently, his hand comes up to my cheek.
And he kisses me.
Something blooms inside my chest, and I kiss him back. Our tongues dance as our mouths slide against each other. It’s unhurried, intentional—like every part of him is trying to communicate something he can’t find words for.
Warmth spreads through me, curling beneath my skin like sunlight through stained glass. He gathers me closer, one arm circling around my back, the other tangling in my hair, holding me like I’m something sacred.
I let myself melt into him.
Just for a moment.
Then he pulls back, not all at once, but in soft little kisses—one at the corner of my mouth, one at the dip between my lips, one more against my cheek.
He breathes me in.
And pauses.
His gaze flickers slightly, still soft but now tinged with curiosity. His nostrils flare as he draws in another slow breath. Then his eyes lock with mine.
“You smell like him,” he murmurs.
My heart skips.
He doesn’t say Nolan’s name. He doesn’t have to.
I open my mouth to say something, but Raiden lifts his hand, brushing his thumb gently beneath my eye like he’s erasing the apology I haven’t spoken yet.
“It’s okay,” he says quietly.
I blink, surprised.
Raiden exhales again, long and deep, as if the weight in his chest has shifted into something he’s willing to carry.
“In our world,” he continues, voice low and even, “packs form around instinct. Loyalty. Trust. You don’t always choose who your people are. Sometimes the bond just... chooses you.”
My throat tightens.
He looks at me like he’s seeing something ancient written beneath my skin. Like he’s known it longer than I have.
“As far as I’m concerned,” he says softly, “you, Nolan, Kael… you’re already my pack.”
My breath catches. Not because he’s wrong. But because some part of me already knew.
Raiden lifts my hand and presses a kiss to my knuckles—then just holds it between us, like a promise sealed in silence.
And I don’t let go. I don’t think I could if I tried.