Chapter 5
ALARA
Morning light spilled over the cliffs, but it did nothing to ease the tension coiled tight inside me.
I’d barely slept, not with my mate so close but so far away at the same time.
I had gone to bed in his shirt, needing to be surrounded by his scent.
But every breath reminded me that he was out of my reach.
Booker was as far away as he could be while still under our roof, under guard by my brother’s order.
I wrapped my arms around myself and headed down the narrow path between the dwellings. Usually, the early hours were peaceful, but not today. For me, and apparently, also the members of my chain.
“I’m just saying,” a voice hissed from around the bend. “Maybe he’ll try to steal her.”
My lynx snapped awake, bristling beneath my skin. She was so angry that it felt like claws scraping along my bones.
I froze where I stood, anger flashing through me before I even fully registered their words. It hit me that they were talking about my mate.
I stepped forward, keeping to the shadows just long enough to hear the second whisper.
“If he does, the alpha will have no choice but—”
“That’s enough.”
My voice cracked across the space before I even decided to speak. Both males jerked around, their eyes widening when they saw me standing there, no longer willing to pretend I hadn’t heard every poisonous word.
Their mouths opened, but I didn’t give them the chance to explain or apologize. “Booker isn’t here to hurt anyone. So unless either of you saw something you haven’t reported, stop spreading lies as though they’re facts.”
They murmured quick apologies and scattered down the path, but the damage was already done. My chest felt tight, and fury coursed through my veins.
I exhaled, trying to steady myself, but that extra little sense of mine stirred before the air even left my lungs.
A faint distortion rippled across the settlement, like someone dragging a cold finger along the back of my mind.
Not from the gossipers—they’d been anxious, not deceitful.
This was more like a shadow slithering at the edge of my awareness.
The sensation faded before I could fully grasp it, leaving me cold enough to wrap my arms tighter around myself. My lynx paced inside me, unsettled.
Something wasn’t right within our borders. And if Caelan thought locking Booker away would keep us safe, he was wrong. The threat wasn’t the wolf in the guest chamber. It was whatever I had just sensed.
Jaw tight, I turned toward the main building. I wasn’t letting another hour go by without answers. It was time to confront my brother.
I didn’t slow down once as I crossed the courtyard and climbed the steps to the main hall. My pulse hammered in my ears, and my lynx prowled so close to the surface that my vision heightened with every furious stride.
Caelan’s office door was half open. I shoved it the rest of the way.
He looked up sharply from where he stood with two elders reviewing territory maps. The moment he saw my expression, his eyes turned wary.
“Out,” he commanded the elders without looking at them.
They obeyed instantly.
The click of the closing door barely faded before the words practically ripped from my chest. “I want to be with Booker.”
Caelan’s jaw locked. “Alara—”
“You can’t deny fate just because he’s a wolf.” My voice shook from how hard it was to hold all this inside.
He exhaled hard, bracing both hands on the edge of his desk. “You’ve known him for hours, Alara. You can’t honestly tell me you understand the consequences of binding yourself to an outsider.”
“It shouldn’t matter that he’s a stranger,” I countered. “Fate is supposed to be sacred. You’ve told me that since I was old enough to shift. But the moment it chooses someone beyond our borders for me, it’s suddenly dangerous?”
“That’s not what I said.”
Eyes narrowing, I crossed my arms over my chest. “But it’s what you meant.”
“This isn’t about the wolf, Alara. This is about what we’ve lived through. What you lived through, even if you don’t remember all of it.” Before I could respond, his temper finally cracked open, and something raw slipped out with it. “Our parents died because of an outsider’s betrayal.”
My breath stuttered. “What?”
Caelan’s shoulders sagged as though he’d been carrying that truth for years and finally lost the strength to hold it up. “It wasn’t a lynx who betrayed them. It wasn’t even someone from a neighboring territory.” His gaze lifted and caught mine. “It was a wolf.”
The floor might as well have tilted under my feet. “You never told me that.”
“You were only a teenager, still so young.” Dropping onto his chair, he heaved a deep sigh. “You’d just lost them only weeks before I found out, and you were still struggling with everything. You didn’t need the emotional upheaval that came from knowing their deaths weren’t just an accident.”
“So you hid it?” I stared at him, stunned that I’d never sensed what he’d done. “Just kept the whole thing shrouded in mystery so I never knew what happened to them?”
He nodded. “We all did. The elders, Riven, and me. You were fragile, Alara. You felt everything around you at a deeper level than anyone else. I didn’t want to add more grief. Or fear.”
My intuition stirred, brushing against the edges of his emotions like fingertips trailing water.
He felt a bone-deep fear for me wrapped in the memory of loss he’d carried alone for years.
I couldn’t help but wish that I’d delved deeper before now, instead of only skimming the surface of his emotions out of respect for his privacy.
My anger softened, but it didn’t vanish. “I’m sorry you suffered with that alone, but Booker isn’t the wolf who betrayed our parents.”
His breath shuddered out, something breaking open behind his eyes.
I held his gaze. “Fate wouldn’t bind me to a shifter who meant to hurt us. So while I understand your fear, it doesn’t change that I want to be with him.”
My brother finally looked away, but I still felt the full weight of the truth settling between us. He was afraid of losing me, but I was determined not to let fear decide my future.
“I’m sorry you carried this without my help for so long.” The words were soft, but they didn’t waver. “But Booker shouldn’t pay for someone else’s mistake. And neither should I.”
Caelan’s hands gripped the arms of his chair, his knuckles turning white. He looked less like my alpha and more like my brother. “I’m trying to keep you safe.”
“I know.” I stepped toward him, breathing past the ache in my chest. “But safety isn’t the same thing as isolation. I’m asking you to trust me. Give me a chance to get to know him. Supervised, on your terms.”
My brother stood slowly, as if the choice in front of him weighed down every inch of his powerful body. “This isn’t like when Isadora mated with a human a few towns over. If this ends badly…”
“It won’t,” I whispered.
He flinched at the absolute certainty in my voice. After a long stretch of silence, he finally heaved a heavy sigh and nodded. “One meeting.”
Relief surged through me so fast my knees wobbled a little.
“But I’ll be present,” he added. “And if I sense even the slightest danger, it ends immediately.”
I hated that the ghost in Caelan’s memories made him resistant to trusting me with Booker.
It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but I had a feeling this was as close to a yes as my brother could manage right now, so I’d take it as a victory.
The meeting was more than I’d had before. And it was all I needed. I had faith that fate would handle the rest.