Chapter 25 - Zane
I’m giving her space, and it feels like the hardest thing I’ve done in a long time.
Every instinct in me tries to fight it, pushing and demanding that I go after her, drag her back, and fix whatever just broke between us. It would be an easy urge to give in to, but I don’t.
I’ve already tried forcing it, and all it did was make things worse.
So I stay alone in the house, pacing several times before forcing myself to stop. I drag a hand down my face and exhale hard.
“She’s not leaving,” I mutter under my breath, hoping that if I say it long enough, I might actually believe it.
She said it through the bond, clear enough that even I couldn’t twist it into something else. That doesn’t mean I’m not on edge, and it doesn’t mean I don’t feel the distance and the tension still lingering between us like something unresolved.
I eventually drop onto the edge of the chair and lean forward, forearms bracing against my knees.
Think…that’s what I need to do instead of rushing and pushing.
I already know she’s not wrong, and the realization has been making it harder for me to breathe.
Naia isn’t just being stubborn for the sake of it, and she’s not fighting me because she enjoys it.
She’s fighting because she has to, because everything she’s ever been taught and has ever known is wrapped up in proving herself. In surviving, and being more than what they reduced her to.
And at the same time, I’ve been standing here, telling her to just let it go as if it were that easy. As if I didn’t spend years doing the same damn thing in my own way.
With a huffed breath, I shake my head in utter disbelief at myself.
I left. That’s how I dealt with it.
I walked away from Wraith Peak, from the expectations and the weight of it all, to build something new instead. Rather than force myself into a version of myself I never wanted to be just to fit into the pack hierarchy, I found others like me, and I did it myself.
But Naia never got that chance. She stayed and endured it, and now I’m asking her to drop it like it doesn’t still have its hooks in her.
Of course she’s pushing back…of course she doesn’t trust it.
Instead of guiding her through it, I’ve been pushing change on her and expecting her to simply get it. I’ve been telling her to trust me without giving her any credible reason to do so.
Leaning back, I stare up at the ceiling and take another deep breath. “I’m an idiot.”
I’ve been projecting and assuming that what worked for me is what she should want too, but it’s not. Not entirely, anyway.
Naia has her own wounds, her own reasons, and a fight only she understands. If I keep trying to force her to abandon it all, I’m going to lose her.
The thought alone is enough to make my inner wolf recoil in disgust and anger, prepared to do anything just to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Clenching my jaw, I know for certain that’s not an option. Not after the bond, or after the way she looks at me when she drops her guard for half a second. Not after I know how it feels to have her close.
While instinct has a hand in it, it’s more than that. The need to keep her in my life is so strong because it’s her. Even with the anger, the stubbornness, and all the ways she pushes against me…I can’t just let that go.
I want all of it, and I want her completely.
Not some version of her that fits more easily into my life, reshaped to make things simpler.
I want her exactly the way she is, both the girl who used to spill her guts to me just because I listened, and the woman who has had to be strong for far too long.
The bond hums faintly in response, letting me know it’s still there and very much real. So long as I can fix this, it won’t go anywhere.
A rush of something panicked and strained tugs inside my mind, startling me out of my thoughts. I sit up straighter and try to focus, feeling as it grabs at me in a way it never has before.
Then, I hear her in my mind.
Zane.
That’s it. Just my name.
Without warning, the bond goes perfectly still, like a connection dropping, and I freeze. What the hell was that?
My head tilts slightly, focus snapping inward as I search for any lingering trace.
Naia.
After a beat, I hear nothing, and I frown. That’s not right.
Even when she’s angry and trying to push me away, the bond is still there. Still present and alive in a way that I can feel constantly.
But this feels like a wall, as if that connection never existed.
I push up from my chair. Naia?
Reaching for her again, more deliberately this time, I cut through the silence, but there’s still nothing. Not even a flicker of recognition. It’s just blank and cold.
My chest tightens instantly, and I push harder, forcing it out of desperation. The tether strains and wavers from my end, but nothing responds from the other end.
It doesn’t connect.
Something’s wrong…very, very wrong.
Before the thought fully forms, I’m already moving for the door.
“Zeke!”
My voice carries loud and urgent across the yard, and before long, footsteps answer almost immediately.
Zeke appears first, followed by Hunter and Dominic, not far behind. “What’s going on?”
“Naia’s gone quiet,” I manage to get out, hurrying down the front steps. “Something happened.”
Zeke’s expression shifts instantly, since he knows my tells by now. “Quiet how?”
“The bond,” I snap, struggling to keep my urgency and worry in check. “She’s not responding. It’s like she’s gone dark.”
Dominic’s brows furrow. “That’s not good.”
“No,” I agree tightly. “It’s not. We need to find her.”
Hunter glances toward the tree line. “Where did she go when it happened?”
“She went for a walk, but she said she would be right back.”
Zeke exhales and seems to mentally get himself in gear. “Alright. Then we don’t waste time.”
When we’re all on the same page, we follow after her scent, and the moment we’re out of sight, we shift.
In wolf form with our senses heightened, we move quickly and with no hesitation.
The forest swallows us up again, but this time there’s no calm in it. There’s no space to think for too long or to question where I stand with Naia. There’s only the desperate need to find her, and the agonizing pull of something going wrong.
I drop low as we reach a shallow valley where I catch a burst of her scent, and I follow the trail forward.
She came this way, I say, through our link, already pushing forward.
The others follow without question, and we spread slightly, covering more ground but staying close enough to move as one. The deeper we go, the stronger her scent gets, along with something else.
I stop abruptly, and Zeke nearly runs into me. What?
Here. I bow my head, smelling the disturbed earth. The loose dirt moves with my fanning breaths.
Multiple scents are overlapping here, and the fur along my flank stands on end immediately.
They found her.
Hunter’s eyes darken. Rogues?
Yeah.
Dominic scans the area. There are more of them this time.
My pulse thrums, and I hate what that means. Keep moving.
We push on, faster this time, following the trail as it cuts deeper into the woods. Branches snap underfoot and leaves scatter as we move, and every other scent fades into obscurity.
Everything in me narrows to one thing. I have to find her now, before anything happens to her.
When we hit a bigger clearing, a faint hum hits my senses, and I skid to a stop again. Catching that vaguely familiar energy, I recognize it at once.
Do you feel that? Hunter asks.
Yeah.
The magic signature isn’t like Naia’s. Instead of wild and unstable, this has the level of control of someone used to wielding it. Someone well practiced.
My stomach drops.
There are more magic users, Zeke mutters.
It’s worse than I thought.
The moment I draw closer in the grassy space, I feel the aftermath and the clash of scents left behind. First, I pick up on Naia’s panicked edge, then a handful of wolves and whoever controlled that magic.
My stomach twists into knots while I move forward, scanning the ground, the trees, the air…Anything I can.
The earth is broken and scuffed, painting a painful picture of the struggle that obviously happened, and it feels that much worse to see.
She fought, Dominic says quietly.
I can see that, I snap, feeling as it sours in my gut to think about.
Regardless of when it happened, I can still feel the lingering energies and the break where everything related to Naia drops off. It’s like her scent has been smothered.
They took her, I tell them, sure of it now.
Zeke steps closer, inspecting the ground around us. There are too many scents to fully pick up.
They didn’t just find her, I say, voice low. They planned it.
We all grow tense, glancing around as we try to put the pieces together. Everything we gather starts resembling the very thing I was afraid of.
What now? Dominic asks.
I don’t answer right away while every part of me is screaming with rage and fear. More so, something in me wants to tear this entire forest apart until I find her. I want to rip every wolf apart who even looked at her wrong.
But I force it down, and I urge myself to think. Losing control now won’t get her back, regardless of how tempting it is.
Rising to my full height slowly, I glance between them. We track them and find her. It’s all we can do.
What if it’s a trap? Zeke asks, looking a bit hesitant with the way he lowers his head.
It doesn’t matter. If they have her, then we’re settling this.
At that, Zeke gives a brief nod in understanding, and Hunter adds, We’ll spread out to cover more land.
I take one last look at the clearing…the place she stood to try and hold her ground. The spot where everything went wrong without me there to help.
My heart squeezes again before we continue, rushing through the trees as we lock onto the cluster of scents.
Hold on, Naia. Even if she can’t hear it, the thoughts burn through me and into our private link anyway. I’m coming, and I’m not stopping until I find you.