Chapter 16 - Chris
The elders summon us again. I know before I sit down at the table that this won’t go well.
Corvin doesn’t bother with pleasantries. “It has been weeks since the girl arrived. Weeks since you claimed the fate-match binds the three of you to her. And yet none of you have completed a mating bite.” His eyes move across our faces.
Silence
He adds, “The council grows impatient. The people grow impatient. I would like an explanation.”
Wayne throws a quick look in my direction, as if asking if I’m going to tell them or he should.
“Her wolf isn’t ready,” Sinth speaks before Wayne or I can. “The healer’s been clear about that from the start. Forcing a bite now could kill her.”
“Or push it back into dormancy for good,” I add. “Permanently. There’s no undoing it once it happens.”
Elder Edgar, seated across from Corvin, tightens his jaw. “So the great scent-match. The fated mate the three of you swore would bind this region together is a shiftless wolf who cannot even survive the bond?” There’s irritation in his tone.
“She’s not shiftless.” My voice comes out hard, fingers clenching into fists. “Her wolf is dormant. Not dead. Learn the difference before you insult her again in my presence.”
Silence follows. It’s heavier than I expected.
“She’s working to recover.” Wayne, uncharacteristically calm. “Healing takes time.” He stares at Edgar. “I mean, you of all people should know that considering how long it took for your wife’s broken heart to heal after she found out about your affair with the fair maiden in your household.”
The room falls silent.
Edgar’s expression darkens, a glint of shame flickering in his eyes.
I knew Wayne’s unusual calmness was fishy; I just didn’t expect him to strike such a low blow. But then again, the idiot is unpredictable.
Sinth lowers his head, a stifled chuckle falling from his lips. The other two elders don’t say a word, and their mean expressions refuse to soften.
Corvin clears his throat to fill the awkward silence. He studies the three of us, also unwilling to push further, not with all three of us united on this. “The council will allow more time. Reluctantly. I trust none of you plan to waste it.”
Nobody answers that. The meeting ends unresolved.
***
Charlize is waiting near the corridor outside the chamber. The second the doors part open, she tries to hide, but we already saw her. She stops, scratching the back of her head.
“Hey, cutie, what’re you doing here?” Wayne asks as we walk over to her.
“I uh…” She clears her throat. “I couldn’t sleep.” Her voice comes out thin. Guilty. “I heard you three were having a meeting with the elders, and I wanted to know what they were saying about me. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I promise.”
“How much of that did you hear?” Sinth asks her.
She swallows. “Enough.”
The part about her wolf. The part where they’re disappointed we’re wasting time on someone who might not survive the bond.
I hate that she heard all that, and it makes my blood boil.
“Listen, I want to take the bite,” she says, her voice laced with desperation.
A pause.
Then Wayne asks her, “Did you hit your head?” He turns toward Sinth. “Feel her forehead. Maybe she has a fever.”
“I’m serious,” she insists. “I want the bite.”
“No,” I say with finality.
“Chris—” She steps forward, her glassy eyes pinned on me.
“I said no.” Sharper than I mean it, but I still don’t take it back. “It’s too dangerous. Can’t risk it.”
“But I…”
“The bite could kill you, Charlize,” Sinth says, calm and composed. “Or push your wolf back into dormancy for good.”
“We can allow that,” Wayne adds. “We won’t.”
“Well, it’s not your decision to make!” she snaps, her voice echoing off the walls.
“It is when the alternative is burying you,” says Sinth.
She flinches, brows knitting together. “I’m the reason the elders are furious. I’m the reason this whole arrangement looks like a failure. If the bite fixes that, I don’t see why we’re arguing.”
“Because your life matters more than the council’s approval.” My voice rises.
“Does it?” Her cracked tone matches mine. “From where I’m standing, this sounds exactly like what happened before. I’m not good enough as I am. So I fix myself. Force something my body isn’t ready for. Just to be worth keeping.”
I go still. We all do.
“That’s not what this is,” Wayne says.
“Oh, but that’s exactly what this is!” Her breathing goes ragged. Panic creeps into her voice.
I hate seeing her like this—all riled up.
“Tell me. What happens if I get better and still can’t take the bite properly? What happens if I try and it goes wrong? Do the elders punish you for wasting resources on me? Do you—” She stops. Swallows hard.
I already see where that was heading.
“Charlize, listen…”
“Don’t ‘Charlize, listen’ me, Sinth,” she cuts him off. “I don’t want to be the reason any of you suffer.” Quieter now. The fight drains out of her. “I’ve spent my whole life being punished for existing, for being extra. For being a burden nobody asked for. If I fail this too—”
“Enough.” I close the distance. My hands find her shoulders. Gentler than I’ve touched anyone in my life. “Nobody is going to punish you. Not for this. Not for anything.”
“You don’t know that.” She fights back the tears in her eyes.
“I do. Because I would not allow it.” My voice drops low. Steady. “You are not a burden. You are not extra. If your wolf never wakes, if we never complete a bond, none of that changes what I owe you. What all three of us owe you.”
She stares at me. Her clear blue eyes are bright with unshed tears. Some old fear is still fighting what I’m telling her.
“I spent the first weeks you were here treating you exactly the way your family did.” The admission costs me. “Like a problem to assess—a liability to manage. I own that. I was wrong. If it takes you a long time to believe anything I say after that, I understand.”
She doesn’t speak, maybe because she’ll end up shedding those tears if she does.
“You will never be punished for what your body can or cannot do. Not while I have breath to stop it.” I mean every word. “I’d rather face the elders’ fury for the rest of my life than watch you risk yourself for their impatience.”
She studies my face like she’s looking for the trick in it. Some hidden conditions I haven’t mentioned yet.
There isn’t one.
Slowly, she steps into me. I wrap my arms around her. I don’t think twice about it. I hold her the way I should have from the first night, instead of standing cold while she bled for a mistake that was never hers.
She hugs me back.
It isn’t much. Arms around my waist. Her face against my chest. But it’s the first time she’s chosen to hold onto me instead of just enduring me. The weight of her against me hits harder than anything the elders said tonight.
Neither of us hurries to end it.
“Thank you,” she murmurs, muffled against my shirt.
“For what?”
“For not making me feel stupid for being afraid.”
I press my hand against the back of her head. I hold her a little closer.
“You were never stupid for being afraid,” I say. “I was stupid for giving you a reason to be.”
She doesn’t answer. She doesn’t pull away either. Tonight, that’s enough.
Wayne rolls his eyes. “What a lovely sight to behold. How heartwarming!”
Sinth chuckles quietly.