Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
The note arrives after dinner.
I find it slipped under my dorm room door when I get back from the dining hall. Small piece of paper, folded once. I recognize Julian's handwriting immediately.
My stomach tightens. Julian doesn't send notes. We're too careful for that, too aware of the risks. If he's breaking protocol, something's wrong.
"Everything okay?" Lily asks.
I fold the note and tuck it into my pocket. "Professor wants to see me about my essay."
"At night?"
"He has office hours until nine." The lie comes easily now. I've gotten good at lying to everyone.
Lily doesn't look convinced but she doesn't push. "Be careful."
"Always am."
I finish eating without tasting anything, my mind already racing through possibilities. Chase found something. The Council is moving faster. Someone saw us together. The bond is showing somehow and people are noticing.
By the time I leave the dining hall, my heart is pounding.
The campus is quiet as I make my way to the History building. Most students are at dinner or in their dorms. A few pass me on the paths but no one pays attention. Just another student heading to evening office hours.
Julian's door is closed when I arrive. I knock twice, soft.
"Come in."
I slip inside and he closes the door behind me immediately, turning the lock with a sharp click. He doesn't touch me, doesn't even come close, but the mate bond flares between us the moment we're alone.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
He crosses to his desk, then back to the door, then to the window. Pacing. I've never seen him this agitated.
"Julian, you're scaring me."
"I should have told you this weeks ago." He stops moving, faces me. "Before I claimed you. Before everything got so complicated. But I was afraid and selfish and I told myself there was time."
"Told me what?"
He runs a hand through his hair, messing it up enough that normally I'd want make me want to smooth it down. "Sit. Please."
I sit in the chair across from his desk. He doesn't sit. Just paces behind the desk, organizing his thoughts.
"You know you're Silverpelt," he starts.
"Yes."
"But you don't know what that means. Not really." He pulls a leather-bound book from his desk drawer. Old, the binding cracked with age. He opens it to a marked page and sets it in front of me.
The text is handwritten in ink that's faded to brown. Old language, formal phrasing, but readable.
"What is this?"
"Records. From before the genocide." He taps the page. "Read it."
I scan the text, trying to make sense of the archaic writing. Words jump out. Silverpelt. Rare. Powerful. Bond.
Multiple bond.
My eyes catch on that phrase and stick there. I read it again. Then again, making sure I'm understanding correctly.
The Silverpelt bloodline carries unique capacity for multiple mate bonds. Where common shifters bond singular, Silverpelt may bond plural, up to four complete connections. This is not aberration but design, evolution's answer to power balance.
"Multiple bond?" I look up at him.
"Silverpelt wolves are different from other shifters." Julian's voice is careful and measured. "Rare. Powerful. And capable of something no other bloodline can do."
"Which is?"
"They can bond with multiple mates."
The room goes still. I stare at him, waiting for the punchline, for him to tell me he's joking. But his face is deadly serious.
"Multiple," I repeat.
"Not just two. Up to four." He watches me process this. "Four complete mate bonds."
My mouth goes dry. "That's not possible."
"It is. For Silverpelt wolves, it's not just possible. It's necessary." He gestures to the book. "Your bloodline evolved this way. The bonds don't compete, they complement. Each mate brings different strength."
I stand because I can't sit anymore. My legs feel unsteady but I need to move. "Four mates. You're telling me I can have four mates."
"Yes."
The mate bond between us flares, responding to my rising panic. I feel Julian's steadiness through it, his certainty. He's known this for weeks and he's had time to accept it. I'm learning it in real time and my world is crumbling.
"And that's why..." I stop, trying to find the words. "I've felt something. With Caspian. This pull that gets stronger every day. And Knox too, even though he barely speaks to me. Even Nico, though that one feels wrong somehow."
Julian goes still. "Knox?"
"Yes. Why?"
"I knew about Caspian. Could feel your response to him through our bond." He runs a hand through his hair. "But Knox... that's more complicated than I thought."
"Why?"
"Because Knox is dangerous. Unstable. If a bond forms there..." He stops himself. "We'll deal with that when it happens."
"And these are all real? All meant to form?"
"If you're feeling the pull with all three of them, then yes." He watches me carefully. "The Silverpelt bond doesn't form randomly. Your wolf recognizes potential mates."
The world tilts sideways. I grip the back of the chair to steady myself.
"I thought I was confused," I whisper. "Thought there was something wrong with me. That I couldn't figure out what I wanted because I kept feeling drawn to different people."
"There's nothing wrong with you." Julian steps closer but doesn't touch me. "It's your bloodline. What you're feeling isn't confusion or weakness. It's your wolf recognizing potential mates."
"What?"
"You'll be powerful beyond anything the Council has seen in generations." His jaw tightens. "That's why they're afraid. That's why they'll never stop hunting you."
I sink back into the chair. My hands are shaking. "How long have you known?"
"Since before I claimed you." Guilt flashes across his face. "Since the first time I felt the pull toward you and recognized what it meant. I knew your bloodline allows for multiple bonds and I claimed you anyway because I'm selfish and I couldn't resist."
"Does Caspian know? Knox? Nico?"
"No. They might feel something but they don't understand what it means.
" He gestures to the book. "I've studied Silverpelt history for years.
When I met you, when I felt the bond forming, I started researching more.
That's when I found this." He taps the book.
"That's when I realized what you are...who you are. .."
"What happened to the others?" The question comes out small. "The other Silverpelt wolves."
Julian's face goes dark. He's quiet for a long moment, and when he speaks his voice is rough.
"They were killed. All of them."
I don't want to hear this but I need to know. I need to understand what was done to make me the last one left.
"Twenty years ago," Julian says, moving to lean against his desk, "High Alpha Kol Revon convinced the Council that the Silverpelt bloodline was too dangerous to exist."
"Dangerous how?"
"Multiple mate bonds mean exponential power." His hands grip the desk edge, knuckles white. "One Silverpelt with four bonded mates could challenge Council authority and shift the balance of power across all territories. Kol saw that as a threat to his control."
"So he what, just decided to kill us all?"
"He convinced the Council it was necessary.
For stability. For safety. For the good of all shifter kind.
" Julian's voice is bitter, rough with old anger.
"He stood before them and argued that Silverpelts were too powerful, too dangerous.
That they bred instability. That their existence threatened the peace. "
I sink back into the chair, legs giving out. "And the Council agreed."
"They voted. Nearly unanimous." He looks away, jaw tight. "Voted to eliminate the Silverpelt bloodline entirely."
My chest feels hollow. "All of them?"
"Every Silverpelt they could find. Men, women, children. Entire families." He looks at me and I see old grief in his eyes, guilt. "Anyone who carried silver wolf. It didn't matter if they'd formed multiple bonds or not. Didn't matter if they were threats or not. Just being Silverpelt was enough."
"How many?"
"Hundreds. Maybe more." His voice breaks. "It took two years. Systematic, organized. They sent enforcers to every territory, every pack. Hunted families down and killed them in their homes. In front of their children. In front of their pack mates."
My chest feels tight. Hundreds of people. Entire families. Children.
"My parents."
"Your parents were part of the resistance." Julian's voice is tight. "When the killings started, some Silverpelts fought back and tried to warn families, help them escape to neutral territories. Your parents were organizing the resistance. That made them priority targets for Kol."
"What happened to them?"
Julian's face goes dark. "They were killed in the genocide. That's all I know for certain." His voice is rough. "Kol Revon personally oversaw the elimination of resistance leaders. Your parents were organizing other Silverpelts, trying to help families escape. That made them targets."
"And I survived."
"Your aunt got you out somehow. The details are lost." He looks at me. "But you're here. That's what matters."
I'm crying now. Tears for parents I never knew, for a family stolen before I could remember them, for answers I'll never have.
I press my hands to my face, trying to hold myself together. Julian wants to reach for me. I feel it through the bond, the desperate need to comfort. But he stays where he is, giving me space to break down without touching.
"I'm the only one left," I say through my fingers.
"Yes."
"And if the Council finds out what I am..."
"They'll finish what they started." He says it flat, factual. "You're the last Silverpelt. The last chance for the bloodline to continue. They can't let you survive."
I lower my hands and look at him. "Then why tell me this now? Why not let me keep believing I'm just a rare wolf with one mate bond?"