Chapter 4 The Body Knows #2
Through the bond, I felt Nora. A thin, persistent signal.
She was still driving, still angry, still moving away from me with a purpose that left no room for looking back.
I tried to feel satisfaction in her pain.
She had to be hurting too; the bond punished both ends.
But all I caught from her was fury honed by the miles, and underneath it a grief that wasn’t reaching for me at all.
Her resolve scared me more than the nausea.
Dawn came gray and slow. I made it downstairs to the kitchen, poured a glass of water, and watched my hand shake as I lifted it. The water hit my stomach and tried to come back up. I set the glass down and breathed through my nose until the wave passed.
My father found me sitting at the kitchen table with my forehead resting on my folded arms.
“Eat something,” Conrad said. He pulled out the chair across from me and sat. He was already dressed in a pressed shirt and clean jacket. The Alpha of Copper Point didn’t do disheveled mornings, even the morning after his son’s mating ceremony went sideways.
“I can’t keep anything down.”
A pause. I heard him set a plate of dry toast on the table and pour himself a glass of water. I didn’t lift my head.
“Delia came to you last night,” he said.
I looked up. His face gave nothing. His pale blue eyes, the same shade as mine, watched me as they watched everything, assessing weakness.
“She came to my room. We—” I swallowed against the memory. “It didn’t go further than a kiss.”
“Why?”
“Because my body shut down. The bond.” I forced myself to sit up straight. Meet his eyes. “The fated bond is still open, and it won’t let me—”
“I understand the mechanics.” Conrad’s controlled disappointment was worse than anger. He wielded it like a tool. “Does anyone else know?”
“Delia.”
“Does anyone in the pack know?”
“No.”
“Good. Keep it that way. If either pack learns you cannot consummate your chosen match while the fated bond remains open, the treaty revision becomes unstable. Iron River’s wolves will say the Goddess disapproves. Our own wolves will question your judgment.”
He was right. I knew he was right, and that made it worse because the situation I’d created was now a problem my father had to manage.
“Nora will accept,” Conrad said. He picked up his water glass, drank, and set it down.
Every motion was measured. “She left in anger. That will fade. Gordon’s daughter was raised to understand duty, and she will not endure the pain of an open bond indefinitely.
Fear, exhaustion, or practicality will bring her back. ”
“She’s not afraid.” The words left my mouth before I could stop them. Through the bond, Nora was a constant, inescapable presence. She was focused on the road ahead, with no room for fear, desperation, or sentimentality.
Conrad studied me. “Then bring her back.”
“She won’t answer my calls.”
“I didn’t say call her. I said bring her back. Find her, explain what is at stake, and secure her acceptance. You created this situation. You will resolve it.”
I looked at the toast on the table. My stomach clenched at the sight of it.
“And Rafe.” Conrad leaned forward. The Alpha voice wasn’t something he used often.
He didn’t need to. The weight of it was in his posture, his stillness, the way the air in the room seemed to compress.
“This stays among you, me, and Delia. Not the pack. Not the enforcers. Not Gordon. If you cannot bed your chosen mate, that is a private matter to be resolved privately. Am I clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
He stood. Paused at the doorway. “The longer the bond stays open, the worse the symptoms become. Do not waste time.”
Then he was gone, and I was alone with a plate of toast I couldn’t eat and the knowledge that the woman I’d thrown away was pulling farther from me with every passing minute.
I tried the water again and managed three sips before my stomach revolted. I set it down, pressed my palms flat on the table, and closed my eyes.
Through the bond, I felt Nora forcing herself forward after I had knocked her down.
I told myself it was selfishness. Spite. That she was punishing me because she could, and that once the reality of being alone without pack protection caught up with her, she’d do what any sensible wolf would do and accept the rejection and let us both heal.
I told myself she’d come back.
But the bond didn’t lie, and Nora’s emotions told a different story. She had turned her attention toward whatever lay ahead with the same stubborn resolve I’d always dismissed as dullness.
I had been wrong about her. She meant to keep moving without me.
I pushed back from the table and went upstairs to get my phone and start looking for her.
Conrad was right. I’d created this. I would fix it.
I’d find Nora, explain what the open bond was doing to both of us, and she would see reason.
She was practical. She understood how things worked.
She’d accept, the bond would break, and I could go back to Delia and give her the night we were supposed to have.
The nausea hit again on the stairs. I stopped, braced a hand against the wall, and waited for it to pass. My wolf pressed against my skull, miserable and accusing.
This is your fault, he seemed to say. You sent her away.
I went up.