Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Kaeli woke slowly, disoriented for a moment as her mind sorted through the events of the last day. She smiled to herself as she recognized the warmth of the male next to her on the couch, his arms snugly around her, his chest rising and falling as he slept.
Solan.
A dream pricked at the edges of her subconscious, but she couldn’t quite grasp what had made her wake or what she’d been dreaming about.
She glanced around the space that felt both brand new and familiar at the same time.
Judging by the dark sky she could see through the blinds, it was still night, but she didn’t know how long she’d been asleep or what time it was.
At first, all she felt was comfort and safety.
But then she noticed something tickling at the background of all that safety and warmth: a hum.
Her skin tingled, and the air grew heavy. The room actually felt alive.
The magics within her weren’t calm anymore; they were thrumming like an engine revving.
Energy curled under her skin, and she sat up, pressing her hand to her chest as her heart pounded.
The blinds rattled as a wind that didn’t belong indoors blew around the room, like a storm drawing in from the ocean.
She could feel her magic colliding within her—North and South—earth and fire, cold and hot.
Her breath caught in her throat as she felt the twin magic of her powers rise inside her, and she was as helpless to stop it as if she’d been caught in a riptide.
Solan stirred awake beside her, and her magic reacted, lashing out toward him with greedy hands, pouring earth and fire out into the room as if she’d opened a door to let everything out.
He let out a sharp, pained sound, and then she felt a hot blast behind her. She tumbled off the couch, catching herself and watching as he shifted into a wolf, clothes shredding and a howl ripping from his throat.
She clutched at the blanket that had been over them, trying to fight the rush of her powers as the house shook and the windows rattled. Something was very wrong with her powers! They weren’t responding to her attempts to rein them in.
Solan lunged at her, jaws wide, fangs gleaming.
But she wasn’t afraid.
He clamped his jaws on her wrist and bit down. The bite was fast and deep, and blood welled from the wounds.
The surge of her magics suddenly stopped like someone had locked them back up. But she hadn’t done anything except panic.
Solan hummed and extracted his fangs, licking across the wounds a few times.
He sat back on his haunches next to her on the floor and let out a low, curious whine.
His eyes had been wild, but they weren’t anymore.
They were amber with bright gold striations, watchful and curious.
When she lifted her hand to look at her wrist, he leaned into her palm and pressed his muzzle to the wound as if apologizing.
The house stilled, the air cleared, and the scent of pine and ozone filled the space.
Fresh like the air after a storm.
He leaned back, his fur bristling slightly, and lifted a paw to rest on her thigh. She looked at her wrist, where scarred teeth marks now marked her skin. He’d bound them together as mates through the bite, the bond between them humming in her veins.
She hugged him, burying her face in his furry neck. “Thank you for saving me, Solan.”
He let out a wolfy growl, and she smiled, closing her eyes in relief.
What the heck had caused her magics to flare like that and go wild?
Boots pounded on the front porch, and she sat back, startled at the sudden interruption.
“Everything okay, Solan?” a male called. “Your house was glowing and shaking.”
She pushed herself up from the floor, and the two of them walked to the front door. She opened the door, and Solan pushed her back, standing between her and two males.
Solan barked sharply, and the males’ heads dropped down to look at him, and then back to her.
“I’m Gabriel, this is Markus. We’re part of the security team. You two okay?”
“We’re fine now, thanks. Just a little magic issue.”
Markus said, “Okay, just checking. Have a good night.”
“Thank you.”
Solan barked like he was saying goodbye, then padded back into the house.
She shut the door and leaned against it, brushing her hair back from her face. She was still shaking a little, but she could feel that she was more grounded and in control than she’d been before Solan marked her.
“How did you know to do that?” she asked him. Then she realized he couldn’t talk. “Never mind, you can tell me later. Holy crap, that was something else. Everything went from nice and cozy to wild so fast!”
She moved back to the couch, her skin still buzzing from the magic rush, and flopped down. He hopped up next to her with a quiet growl.
Resting her head on the back of the couch, she sighed and rubbed the space between her eyes.
“I remember now that I was dreaming right before I woke up, and it was about the day my mom left me. I think so much has happened so quickly to me recently—getting kicked out of my coven, coming to Ohio, meeting you—and then talking about my past has just manifested all my fears again.” Her childhood hadn’t been cruel, just cold.
Once her grandma had passed away, it seemed like the last person to actually love her had been gone, and Kaeli had been so young.
Her mother had met her needs, but she’d never seemed to like the job—motherhood was just a coat she could take on and off when it suited her.
Something about the safety and comfort she’d felt since meeting Solan had started to make her old anxieties creep up, dredging up the things she’d thought were long buried.
Fears about being abandoned, about loving someone who would eventually leave her behind, had plagued the vivid dream about her mom packing up and moving on without Kaeli.
Solan nudged her arm, snuggling up underneath and resting his head on her lap.
“I feel like if I hold onto you too tightly, everything’s going to go to hell,” she admitted.
“I don’t want to feel so much toward you so fast, but I do.
I feel cared for and safe, like the world could fall apart and it wouldn’t matter because I’ve got you.
That freaking scares the hell out of me.
I swore I’d never get left behind again, but what I ended up doing to myself was just pushing everyone away and relying on myself. I’m so very tired of that, though.”
He growled softly, almost sadly, and tilted his head back, giving her chin a quick lick. She chuckled and scratched behind his ears.
“I think my magics flared up because I was scared, and my magics reached out to you, but it was powerful, and it caused you to shift. You marking me made everything quiet down, just like what happened when we met on the bluffs. Thank you.” She leaned over and rested her head against his, her fingers sinking into his warm fur.
Then she wiggled down into the couch, his big, furry body next to her, and closed her eyes with a yawn.
She rested her hands on him as peace settled over her with one great truth the scary situation had revealed: Solan hadn’t run off, he’d stayed.