Chapter 16 #2
They plunged deeper into the forest, following deer paths that twisted between ancient oaks and towering pines. The stream, when they reached it, was broader than expected—perhaps thirty feet across, running fast and cold with snowmelt from the northern mountains.
"Can you swim?" Nero asked, setting Casteel down at the water's edge.
"Not well," Casteel admitted, staring at the rushing current with trepidation.
Nero didn't hesitate. He stripped off his outer clothes, bundling them with their few possessions into a makeshift pack that he could carry above the water. "Hold onto me. Don't let go no matter what happens."
The water was shockingly cold, stealing Casteel's breath as they waded in. Nero's enhanced strength served them well—he let the current take them downstream while supporting Casteel's weight, then guiding them across to the far bank with powerful strokes.
They emerged dripping and shivering, but the sound of pursuit had faded behind them. The Silver Guard would lose precious time searching for their trail, giving them a chance to put real distance between themselves and their hunters.
"We need to keep moving," Nero said, helping Casteel squeeze water from his clothes. "Find shelter before nightfall."
Casteel nodded, teeth chattering as he pulled his sodden shirt closer. Without the wolf's heat, the cold bit deeper than he remembered, seeping into his bones with merciless efficiency. Had it been the wolf that had protected him without him even realizing? He'd never been one to feel the cold.
He felt Nero's concern flickering like a distant candle.
His mate moved with predatory grace, scanning their surroundings with senses now heightened beyond anything Casteel had ever managed to achieve.
The silver wolf had found a more natural home in Nero's battle-honed body than it ever had in his.
"There's a ridge to the north," Nero said, his head tilted as he listened to sounds Casteel could no longer perceive. "Might offer caves, shelter from the elements." His gaze softened as it returned to Casteel. "And you need to get warm before hypothermia sets in."
The journey through the forest was a blur of exhaustion for Casteel. Without the wolf's endurance, his muscles burned with each step, his lungs laboring in the thin mountain air. Twice he stumbled, and twice Nero was there instantly, supporting him with a strength that seemed effortless.
"I will carry you," Nero determined after the third stumble left Casteel gasping against a tree trunk.
"No," Casteel insisted, though his legs trembled beneath him. "I need to do this. I need to know what I am now."
Understanding flickered across Nero's face. Through their bond came a pulse of respect. He didn't argue further, simply stayed close as they continued their ascent toward the ridgeline.
The sun was sinking toward the western peaks when they finally reached a suitable shelter—a shallow cave set into the rocky hillside, its entrance partially concealed by tangled brambles.
Nero cleared the opening with swift efficiency, then disappeared briefly to gather firewood while Casteel huddled against the stone wall, trying to ignore how his body ached from the unaccustomed exertion.
"Our pursuers have veered east," Nero reported when he returned, arms laden with dry branches. "Following false trails Eryken will have left. We should be safe for the night."
Casteel watched as Nero built a small fire with practiced ease.
The flames cast flickering shadows across his mate's features, highlighting the subtle changes the wolf-soul had wrought.
Nero had always moved with a fighter's precision, but now there was something else in his movements, a fluid grace that seemed almost supernatural.
His eyes caught the firelight with an occasional silver gleam, and his reactions had become preternaturally swift.
"How does it feel?" Casteel asked quietly as Nero settled beside him. "The wolf."
Nero was silent for a long moment, his expression troubled. "Powerful," he finally admitted. "Like I could run for days without tiring. Like I could tear through stone with my bare hands." He met Casteel's gaze directly. "But wrong. It doesn't belong to me."
"It does," Casteel said. It belonged in Nero far more than it ever had done in him. The wolf enhanced Nero's gifts. In Casteel he struggled to become something he wasn't.
Nero reached for him, his calloused hand finding Casteel's in the firelight. "I never wanted this. If I'd been conscious, I would have stopped you."
"And died instead," Casteel replied simply. "That wasn't an option."
The cave fell silent except for the soft crackling of the fire.
Outside, night creatures began their chorus as darkness settled over the forest. Casteel felt Nero's conflicted emotions—gratitude warring with guilt, wonder at his new abilities shadowed by regret for what Casteel had lost. He had to stop this. Nero shouldn't feel guilty.
"You're right," Casteel said. "It's a huge adjustment but I watched you today and I'm in awe of how the wolf is amplifying the gifts you already have." Nero opened his mouth to object, but Casteel kissed him briefly.
"This is the way it always should have been, I know—" his voice caught. He wanted to desperately ask if Nero still cared for him but that wasn't fair.
"You won't leave me?" Nero finally asked when it became clear Casteel wasn’t going to finish his thought, his voice barely above a whisper. "If we reach Morven's estate, if the noble houses unite against Doran...what becomes of us?"
Casteel stared into the flames. "The prophecy speaks of the Silver Wolf. That's you now."
Nero's hand tightened around his. "I don't care about prophecies. I care about you."
"Because of what I sacrificed?" The words escaped before Casteel could stop them, giving voice to the fear that had been growing since he'd awakened without his wolf. "Because you feel obligated?"
"No," Nero said firmly, turning to face him fully.
"Because you're the same man who faced down an assassin's arrow without flinching.
The same man who defied Doran's plans even when it meant risking everything.
" His voice dropped lower, roughened with emotion.
"The wolf didn't make you brave, or kind, or worthy, because you already were, certainly to me.
It just made you valuable to people who wanted to use you. "
Casteel felt a pulse of genuine emotion—stronger than he'd expected was still possible. It wasn't the overwhelming connection they'd once shared, but neither was it the pale shadow he'd feared was all that remained. He needed to be honest. He was just afraid.
"What if I'm not the same?" Casteel asked, the question torn from him. "The wolf was always there. It was part of me even when I didn't know what it was, before the prophecy."
"Then we'll discover who you are together," Nero replied, his free hand coming up to cup Casteel's cheek. "But I already know the important parts."
The kiss that followed was different from those they'd shared before—less desperate, less driven by magical compulsion, but somehow more real for its gentleness.
The kiss deepened, Casteel's hands finding purchase in Nero's shirt as he pulled him closer.
Without the wolf's heightened senses, each touch felt different—more human, perhaps, but no less profound.
When Nero's fingers traced the line of his jaw, Casteel felt the calluses from years of stringing bows, the strength that had nothing to do with magic and everything to do with the man himself.
"I'm afraid," Casteel whispered against Nero's lips, the confession easier in the dim firelight. "That you'll realize I'm nothing special without the wolf. Just a stable boy with dreams too big for his station."
“And I’m terrified you’ll choose freedom over being bound to an old man,” Nero whispered, pulling back just enough to hold Casteel’s gaze.
The firelight danced in his silver eyes, turning them molten.
His thumb brushed across Casteel’s lower lip, a feathered promise of things to come.
“I was sent to kill you. I failed—not because of the wolf, but because of what I saw in your eyes.”
“Show me,” Casteel breathed, sliding his hands beneath Nero’s shirt, finding the heat of bare skin. “Show me what you see.”
Nero’s answer was a kiss that stole Casteel’s breath—hungry, tender, fierce. His hands moved over Casteel’s body, peeling away layers of cloth as if unveiling something so precious. Every fingertip memorized a contour, every caress seared sensation into memory, unhurried by magic or prophecy.
“You’re breathtaking,” Nero murmured against the hollow of Casteel’s throat, voice rough with awe.
“Wolf or no wolf, prophecy or no prophecy. Why would you ever want to be stuck with me?” Casteel parted his lips to deny it, but Nero pressed his mouth over the words, swallowing them in a desperate kiss.
The cave floor was hard beneath them, but Nero’s cloak pooled softness between rough stone and bare flesh. The fire’s amber glow traced shifting patterns across their bodies, spotlighting the lean strength of Nero’s shoulders and the taut curve of Casteel’s hips.
Deprived of the wolf’s heightened senses, Casteel drank in every detail: the tiny scar at Nero’s lip corner, the erratic flutter of his pulse beneath Casteel’s fingertips, the way Nero’s pupils darkened when their eyes locked.
“Can you still feel me?” Casteel asked as Nero’s hands mapped his skin with reverent precision. “Through the bond?”
“A million times,” Nero growled, lips trailing down Casteel’s chest. “I feel your heart thunder when I do this.” His teeth grazed a nipple, coaxing a shudder that arched Casteel’s spine into him.
They moved together at a deliberate pace—no frantic hunger, only the slow build of need matched to trusted rhythm.
Nero’s hands guided Casteel’s with a certainty no magic could replace, and when they finally joined, it was like two souls plunging headlong into one another.
Casteel’s breath caught on the tide of pleasure—sharper, more intimate.
“I need you,” Nero whispered into Casteel’s ear, voice husky and raw, “even though you deserve so much more than me. Not the wolf. Not the prophecy. Just you.”
Casteel’s answer was a broken gasp as Nero found the pace that matched his own longing.
Their bodies tore at the silence of the cave with muffled cries and urgent rustle of skin on skin.
Outside, the night moved on—crickets, distant hoots—unaware of the fierce surrender unfolding in the flickering shadows.
When release came, it was not the all-consuming storm of earlier encounters but a deep, resonant echo that settled between them, a quiet confession of love that needed no magic to prove its power.
They lay entwined by the dying embers of the fire, Nero’s cloak draped over their spent bodies against the mountain chill.
Casteel traced slow, lazy patterns on Nero’s chest, feeling the steady drum of his mate’s heartbeat under his palm.
He hadn’t found the words to reply to Nero’s confession.
He didn’t need them yet. He only needed this—Nero’s warmth, their joined breath, the soft certainty of a promise kept in firelight.
"When we reach Morven's estate," Nero said into the silence, "we'll need to decide what to tell them about the wolf. "
Casteel nodded against his shoulder. "They'll expect the Silver Wolf of the prophecy."
"And they'll get one," Nero replied, his arm tightening around Casteel's waist. "Just not the one they anticipated."
"Do you think they'll accept it? That the wolf can transfer between bonded mates?"
Nero was quiet for a moment, considering. "The nobles care about power, not who wields it. If I can demonstrate the wolf's abilities, if I can shift, they'll listen." His fingers combed gently through Casteel's hair. "But I won't let them use either of us as Doran tried to do."
"And after?" Casteel asked, the question that had been haunting him finally finding voice. "After Doran is defeated, after the kingdom is stable...what then?"
Would he still want him then? Casteel had so many doubts.
Nero shifted, propping himself up on one elbow to look into Casteel's eyes. The firelight caught the silver gleam that now resided there, a constant reminder of what had been exchanged between them.
"Then we find those horses you dream about," he said simply. "The Skellarae in the northern valleys."
"You remembered," Casteel whispered, something warm unfurling in his chest that had nothing to do with their bond and everything to do with being truly seen.