CHAPTER 18 THE BOND AS BAIT #2
"That's your mistake," Jace continued. "I'm not a prize. I'm not a ownership. I'm a warrior. I'm a scout trained by one of the most strategic prides in the western territories. And I'm someone who chose to be here because I want to be."
Kane's expression darkened, his scarred face contorting with rage at being challenged by someone he clearly saw as prey.
"Pretty words," Kane said. "But when the fighting starts—"
"Then I fight," Jace interrupted, his voice cutting through Kane's bluster. "Not because I belong to Eli, but because I chose to stand with him. There's a difference. A difference you clearly don't understand."
He stepped even closer, now just on Eli's side of the boundary line. Close enough that Kane could probably smell him, could sense the lack of fear in his scent.
"And another thing," Jace said, his gold gaze locked on Kane's scarred face. "If you think you can use me as leverage against him, you're underestimating what we built. Our bond isn't ownership. It's trust. Which means I'm not a weakness—I'm a strength."
Eli felt something shift inside him—something fundamental and profound.
His immediate impulse had been to protect Jace through force, through ownership, through claiming him so thoroughly that Kane would understand he was untouchable. To step between them, to make it clear through violence and territorial display that Jace was his and therefore off-limits.
But watching Jace claim his own power, watching him stand as an equal, watching him face down a threat without needing Eli to defend him—that was so much more powerful than ownership could ever be.
This was what it looked like when Eli did not step in front of him.
This was the risk they had chosen.
Kane's scarred face contorted with rage at being challenged by someone he'd dismissed as weak. His body tensed, and for a breath, Eli thought he might actually attack across the boundary line.
But Kane's lieutenants put hands on his shoulders, holding him back.
"You're both delusional," Kane finally said, shaking with barely controlled fury. "When I take this territory, the cougar will be the first casualty. I'll make sure you watch, Corrigan. I'll make sure you understand exactly what your weakness cost you."
He turned and stalked back toward his camp, his lieutenants following. But before he disappeared into the tree line, he looked back one more time.
"Three days," he called out. "Three days to gather your forces and prepare your defenses. Then we come for what's ours."
The threat hung in the air long after Kane disappeared.
Vera turned to Eli and Jace, her expression thoughtful. "Well handled," she said to both of them. "You showed him a shape of strength he can't order, own, or punish into existence. That will unsettle him. Unsettled men make ugly choices."
She paused, her amber eyes serious. "Which makes him dangerous. Be very careful."
***
Back in the cave, Eli's adrenaline was still running high.
His hands were shaking slightly—not from fear, but from the effort of controlling his wolf's instincts. Every fiber of his being had screamed at him to attack Kane when he'd threatened Jace, to make it absolutely clear through violence that Jace was untouchable.
Jace was pacing the cave, his energy equally high. He was bouncing between fear and exhilaration, processing the confrontation in his own way.
Vera had settled near the entrance with her wolves, studying maps and planning defensive positions. She'd given Eli and Jace space, understanding that they needed to process what had just happened.
Alone in the sleeping area, Eli pulled Jace close.
His first impulse—his wolf's first impulse—was to mark Jace so thoroughly that every shifter in the territory would know he belonged to Eli. To fuck him so intensely that Jace would understand just how much Eli needed him, needed to claim him, needed to make him absolutely, unavoidably his.
His hands gripped Jace's hips, his body pressing against Jace's back, his mouth finding the junction of Jace's neck and shoulder where his scent was strongest.
"Eli," Jace said, breathless and questioning.
And that single word—that question in Jace's voice—made Eli stop.
He forced himself to step back, to breathe, to think past the overwhelming need to claim and possess.
"I almost did it," Eli said hoarsely, his voice hoarse with barely controlled need. "I almost let my wolf take over. I almost claimed you so thoroughly that Kane would never question who you belong to."
"I know," Jace said, turning to face Eli. He reached up and touched Eli's face, his fingers gentle against Eli's jaw. "But you didn't. You stopped. You chose trust."
Eli's breathing was ragged. "It's harder than I thought it would be. Especially now that he's threatening you. My instinct is to make sure you understand that you belong here, that you belong with me, that no one can take you away."
"I know exactly where I belong," Jace said firmly, his bright eyes steady and clear. "I belong here because I chose to. And that choice—my choice—is more powerful than any claiming could ever be."
Eli took a deep breath and deliberately stepped back further. His body was still vibrating with the need to mark, to possess, to ensure Jace understood the depth of his commitment.
But he channeled that energy differently.
Instead of rough claiming, he made love to Jace slowly and deliberately.
He undressed Jace with careful hands, kissing every inch of skin he revealed.
He took his time, building arousal gradually rather than frantically.
When he finally pushed inside Jace, it was with deliberate slowness, with constant verbal check-ins, with the kind of attention that said I see you, I respect you, I choose you rather than you're mine, you belong to me, I own you.
"I love you," Eli said as he moved inside Jace, steady despite the intensity of sensation. "Not as property. Not as something I own. As someone I choose every single day."
Jace's response was to pull Eli close and whisper back: "And I choose you. Every day. Always."
When they climaxed together, it was with that understanding between them—that their bond was built on choice, not ownership. On trust, not ownership.
By the time they were finished, Eli's possessive urge had been transformed into something healthier: commitment, trust, and the knowledge that Jace stayed not because he was claimed but because he chose to.
When Eli and Jace emerged from the sleeping area—dressed and composed but still carrying the scent of sex and satisfaction—Vera was waiting with fresh tea and a knowing look.
"That went well," she said, which was clearly referring to more than just the confrontation with Kane.
Jace blushed slightly, but Eli just nodded. There was no point in pretending Vera didn't know exactly what had happened in the sleeping area. Shifter hearing was acute, and Vera had always been perceptive.
Vera continued, her voice becoming more serious: "Kane is predictable in his unpredictability. He'll escalate because he's angry and threatened by your bond. But that anger makes him reckless. That's where we have advantage."
She spread out the maps on the cave floor, pointing to various positions.
"Tomorrow, we begin defenses in earnest. We'll establish three defensive perimeters—one here at the cave, one at the eastern ridge, and one at the water source.
We'll rotate guards, establish communication signals, and prepare fallback positions. "
She looked up at both of them. "But tonight, rest. You're going to need your strength."
As Vera turned back to her maps, Jace reached over and took Eli's hand.
"Thank you," he said. "For choosing the harder path. For trusting me to fight instead of trying to protect me through ownership."
Eli brought Jace's hand to his lips and kissed his knuckles gently. "Thank you for making me brave enough to choose it. Thank you for being someone worthy of that choice."
They slept curled close, both emotionally and physically exhausted.
But it was a good exhaustion—the kind that came from confronting fears and choosing better responses. The kind that came from being tested and not breaking.
Somewhere in the night, Jace reached for Eli in his sleep, and Eli tightened his arms around him instinctively. Not possessively, just... lovingly. Protectively in the way that partners protect each other, not in the way that owners protect property.
When dawn broke, they were ready.
The real preparations for war could begin.
And they would face it together—as equals, side by side, as a bonded pair who'd chosen each other freely and would continue choosing each other every single day.
Kane had given them three days.
They would use every moment.