Chapter 14
CADE
For a second, I think I’ve finally snapped. That I’ve hallucinated her inside this cave. Or I’ve died, and I’m grasping at dreams I’ve willed out of thin air because my mind’s been breaking little by little, every day I’ve been out here.
But then she moves.
She’s running toward me, and it’s enough to collapse my entire world inward.
Rowan.
She slams into me with a force that stops my heart just before forcing it to beat again.
Her arms lock around my neck, fingers curling into my coat like she’s terrified I’ll slip through her hands.
My knees want to drop from the sheer relief of holding her, but I stay standing. I have to. For her. For us.
She’s here, and she’s alive. She’s in my arms, clinging to me like maybe she’s ached for me just as much as I’ve done for her.
Her face presses into my throat, and the sound she makes—broken and strangled, half-sob, half-prayer—puts a knife straight through me. I bury one hand in her hair, the other wrapping around her waist, pulling her tighter until she trembles with the intensity of it all.
“I thought—” her voice cracks, muffled against my skin, “Cade, what I did—”
“Shh.” My voice is rough gravel. “Don’t worry about what happened. Don’t even think about it. I’ve got you now, and I’m not letting go anytime soon.”
Her fingers tighten in my coat, and she shudders. “But I’m so sorry. He used magic, and I didn’t know…”
The words hit me like a punch, and I lean back just enough to see her face.
Her eyes are more heavily blue and golden at the moment, but it’s the regret in them that guts me.
I have no clue what she’s been through, but I can’t imagine it’s been any easier on her than it has been for me these last two weeks.
“Thank you for coming for me,” she whispers, voice barely there.
“I never left.” The truth grinds out of me, low and fierce. “My body moved, Rowan. That’s all. Every part of me, the pieces that matter, stayed with you.”
Her breath stutters, soft and uneven. She lifts a shaking hand and cups my cheek. Her thumb traces the thick stubble there, slowly, almost reverent, like she’s memorizing the shape of me.
My chest caves inward. I didn’t know I could feel this kind of relief. I didn’t know it would hurt to care like this, but it’s a pain I wouldn’t trade for anything.
“I dreamed of you, of this moment, so many times,” she murmurs.
I swallow hard, my vision blurring at the edges. “I know. I felt it. Every night. Every damn minute.”
Her breath brushes my lips. She’s close—so close I can feel her heartbeat stutter against mine.
I remind myself to be gentle—we’re both too fragile for anything else—but that doesn’t stop me from needing this contact.
I lower my forehead to hers, closing my eyes. “You’re safe,” I breathe. “I have you now.”
She exhales like the words shattered something inside her. When her lips brush mine—barely a ghost of contact—it steals every coherent thought from my skull.
My breathing stops, and when she does it again, I know she needs this just as much as I do.
I kiss her.
Slowly. Carefully. Devastatingly.
Her fingers slide into my hair, her body melting into mine, and the kiss deepens just a breath—slow, aching, and starved—but still tender and controlled, because if I let myself go, neither of us will make it through the night.
A stray tear slips down her cheek and hits my lips. My entire being quakes.
I pull back only enough to graze the corner of her mouth, then her temple, then rest my forehead against hers again, breathing her in like oxygen.
“He won’t get you again,” I whisper. “I’ll make damn sure of that.”
She nods, but the look in her eyes doesn’t seem so sure. Though it’s not fear there, it’s resolve, like she’s learned a lot more than I have since the night she left. Like she came back forged from something that should have broken her.
A throat clears behind her, and for the first time, I realize we’re not alone.
My entire body snaps tight. A growl slips free before I can choke it down, low and primal, vibrating up my spine. Instinct takes over, and I tuck Rowan slightly behind me, shielding her, muscles tight enough to snap bone.
A man stands a few feet away.
Tall, broad-shouldered, with dark hair silvering at the temples. Light brown eyes, marking him as Stoneclaw Pack—watchful, quietly aching.
He doesn’t move.
But the grief in him is so bare, so bleeding and unhidden, it hits me like a blade pressed straight to the ribs.
He’s not a risk, my wolf says. I would have warned you. He smells like Rowan. I think that’s Marius.
A conclusion I was coming to as well, except that knowledge doesn’t soothe the tension gutting through me. If he’s Marius, then why now? Why here? Why not weeks ago—before she walked into a nightmare alone?
“Cade,” Rowan breathes behind me, her palm sliding down my arm. “It’s okay. That’s my… He’s my dad.”
My full attention goes back to her, softening only for my mate. “And you’re fine with him here now?”
She nods, eyes watering. “He found me after I escaped and probably saved my life. I didn’t know where to go.”
I would have found her, but I don’t point that out. Not when it’s so clear with the way she keeps casting glances at him that she needs this moment to hold onto.
So, I look past her and meet the man’s stare with one of my own. “Thank you.”
“None needed,” he replies, voice rough with emotion but steady. “And you’d be?”
“Her mate.”
It comes out clipped and unyielding. Territorial in a way I won’t apologize for. He’s her father, and I’ll respect that, but I’m also the male who will bleed and kill and die for her, and he needs to understand that, too.
Marius dips his chin once, slow and assessing. “Very well.” He gestures toward the mouth of the cave, the faint howl of wind echoing beyond. “We should get moving. We’re exposed here, and if that sorcerer is following—”
A sharp crack echoes from outside. Something heavy hits the ground with a thud that reverberates through the stone.
Only two of us tense, and before I know what’s happening, Rowan is moving toward the opening.
I reach for her, but she’s a step ahead, intent on doing as she pleases.
Panic for her safety gnaws at me, but then I sense what I’m sure she already has.
Archie.
He barrels past the last boulder, snow spraying off his fur in a glittering arc. He’s enormous—bigger than I’ve yet to see him—and he doesn’t hesitate before wrapping his long body around Rowan, like he’s trying to shield her from the world itself.
Marius is suddenly at my side, claws sliding free, body coiled to strike. I lift a hand, cutting him off before he makes a mistake neither of us can take back.
“He’s her familiar,” I say low.
Marius snaps his gaze toward me. “But she’s a wolf shifter.” His jaw flexes, tension crackling through him like static. “Not a witch.”
“I know.” My voice comes out rougher than intended. “I can’t explain it, but I’m certain. I’ve seen the way they move together. The way he reacts to her. Their bond doesn’t follow any rule I’ve ever known.”
Archie may not share her blood. He may not be a wolf. But I’ve watched him guard her with a loyalty that defies any logic our world runs on.
And as much as it should chip at the territorial instinct embedded in every inch of my DNA… It doesn’t.
He’s the only other creature on this earth I don’t feel the need to challenge for space at her side. Probably because he carved out a place there long before I ever entered her life, and I couldn’t hurt Rowan in that way by ever making her feel as though she had to choose between the two of us.
Archie buries his nose into her shoulder, voice shaking in a way that gnaws at something raw inside my chest, because I know exactly how he’s feeling right now.
“Rowan—Rowan, please tell me you’re real,” he breathes, words muffled against her. “Tell me I’m not hallucinating again.”
She lets out a soft, gentle laugh—one of relief, not amusement—and threads her fingers through the thick fur at his neck. “I’m here. I’m okay.”
Archie pulls back just enough to scan her face, frantic and searching. “You smell like blood and magic and terror, so excuse me if I’m not convinced.” His voice cracks on the last word.
He presses one of his paws to her chest. “I thought I lost you. Every hour. Every night. I thought—” He chokes on the words, then huffs sharply, trying to force himself back under control. “Don’t do that to me again.”
Rowan runs a calming hand between his ears. “I didn’t really have a choice before, but I’ll do my best not to let it happen twice.”
Archie makes a low, trembling sound before he straightens, still pressed protectively against her side. His voice steadies into something a little more himself.
“Good enough for now,” he mutters, eyeing Marius with suspicion and then flicking his gaze back to me. “Who’s your brooding friend?”
Marius bristles, baring his canines. “I could tear you in half.”
Archie doesn’t blink. “You’re welcome to try.”
Rowan shakes her head, her slight grin softening the air around us. “Easy, Archibald. He’s my dad.”
“Nice of you to finally show up.” The ferret eyes him cautiously. “It’s been a long time, Marius.”
Interesting. Archie knows him. Though I think I remember there being mention that Rowan’s mother had Archie before she was even born. Marius seems to finally relax as well, and I’d bet he’d never seen the ferret in this state before.
Archie exhales hard, then finally turns toward me. His eyes—normally bright and mischievous—are fierce and haunted.
“I don’t know about you, but I got so close,” he says. “That place…the air felt wrong and twisted. There were layers of spells—disorientation, memory bleeds, and sensory traps. You’d walk toward it and end up behind yourself somehow.” He shudders. “I’ve never felt anything like it.”
I feel Rowan flinch beside him.
Archie continues, voice dropping low. “I almost didn’t make it out. I kept following your scent, Rowan, but it would fade before reappearing in the other direction, tearing pieces of reality apart so you couldn’t be found. Until suddenly, my mind was clear again. I knew exactly where you were.”
Which means Malrik probably knows where we are.
My jaw clenches. “The same thing happened to me, but let’s discuss this after we’ve left this place behind, yeah?”
I pull Rowan back toward me, needing her touch again before we leave the cave. She comes to me willingly, her body almost too warm. It has me looking closer at her and not sure if I like what I see.
She has muscles she didn’t have before, and there’s an energy vibrating through her that’s new. Not dark, but not my Rowan. At least not the one I knew before.
“Are you the reason we were all able to find you?” I ask her since she doesn’t seem as worried as the rest of us.
Her nod is subtle enough that I know she doesn’t want to talk about it yet, so I don’t push. But I do remember that Archie and I weren’t the only two people looking for her.
“We need to find Liz and Elias,” I tell them. “They were with me, but we spread out, and I haven’t seen them in over a week, I think.”
Rowan tenses. “Liz is out there?”
“I’m sure she’s okay.” I rub her shoulder, but that doesn’t lessen her concern.
Archie squares up. “I’ll go after them, and you can get Rowan out of here. I can—”
“No,” Rowan cuts in sharply. “We stay together. No more splitting up.”
Firm and steady, her tone is different.
So much so, it has the rest of us taking pause. An action she seems to notice.
“I’m not who I was when I left,” she adds, looking between Archie and me.
“Malrik… He wanted to shape me into something. I don’t know what exactly or even why, but he did teach me plenty.
I don’t need to be ushered off like a Hollowborn who can’t take care of herself anymore.
I’m also a shifter and the Ashmark, and I know how to control myself now.
More than that, I’m not losing any of you again. We stick together.”
Our bond pulses—strong, warm, threaded with something fierce and unshakeable. I can feel her conviction settling into me like heat into cold bones. And even though the protective part of me wants to wrap her up, carry her somewhere safe, and never let anything touch her again…
I can’t deny what’s standing in front of me.
She’s been forged into something sharper. Fierce.
As much as I fucking hate that Malrik laid hands on her at all, I can’t look at her and pretend she’s fragile. The power rolling off her isn’t wild or dangerous any longer. It’s controlled. Claimed as her own.
My only regret is that she had to do so much of this alone.
“We’ll find them all together,” I promise her.
“I could go for you,” Marius offers quietly to Rowan. “It’s easy to see these people are your family. I won’t let you down. Not again.”
She turns toward him, reaching for his hand. “You’re also my family. You’re not going anywhere without me either.”
Where are you, Cade?
Elias’ voice cuts through, urgent and lacking his normal calm, but also taking me by surprise. I haven’t used the pack connection in so long, it feels foreign.
I found Rowan. I leave out the other details since something is clearly wrong. Can’t you follow our trail now?
I assumed he was on his way to us, but I should have checked in sooner. If I’m going to reclaim my title as Alpha, I have to do better. Not just for him, but for all of them.
Before I could make it to you, I found Liz, he says. She’s hurt bad. I’m taking her to the Glacier Crest Pack house. Meet us there. I don’t know if they’ll heal a vampire without you present.
My breath punches out of me. Not for myself, but for Rowan. She doesn’t need bad news right now. Yet, I can’t hide this from her.
Rowan stares at me intently. “What is it?”
“Elias reached out through our pack connection,” I say, dread twisting tightly at my chest. “Liz is injured.”
Rowan swallows hard. “Take me to her.”
And just like that, we’re moving toward the cave’s exit, together just as it always should have been.
I just hope we’re not too late.