Chapter 96: Callista Returns - Riven's POV

The words didn’t register at first. I blinked slowly, trying to process. “They’re here?” I repeated slowly.

Kensley nodded, her gaze steady on mine. “They arrived not too long ago. As I said, they're with your father right now.”

My pulse spiked, sharp and sudden, like something had just snapped tight inside my chest. The bond reacted instantly, flaring in a way it hadn’t in months. It wasn’t just the dull, constant ache I had grown used to. This was different.

This was awareness.

I straightened before I even realized I was moving, my eyes scanning the tree line as if I expected to see her standing there. She wasn’t. Of course she wasn’t. That would have been too easy.

“You’re lying,” I said under my breath, but there was no conviction behind it. “They wouldn’t come here. I’m pretty sure they hate me.”

“I’m not,” Kensley replied quietly. “They came because they’re scared. Not of you,” she added quickly when my expression darkened. “Of losing her. They may not like what is going on between the two of you, but the fear of losing Callista overrides everything. If they truly hated you, don’t you think they would have removed the mark by now or tried.”

I reached up, thinking about the mark on my throat. Nothing had ever happened to it, and as far as I knew, they hadn’t sought a way to break the bond. My jaw tightened as I dragged one hand down my face. I exhaled slowly, trying to steady myself, but it didn't work, because nothing about this situation felt steady.

“She’s not my responsibility anymore,” I muttered, even though the words felt just as hollow now as they had that night in the hallway. “Tell them to break the bond and get as far away from me as possible.”

Kensley didn’t argue with me. That was worse.

The silence stretched for a second too long before she spoke again. “You keep saying that,” she whispered. “But your bond says otherwise. She clearly doesn’t want your bond broken.”

My hand came back to my chest before I could stop it, pressing hard against the ache there as if I could physically force it down. It didn’t help. If anything, it made it worse.

“She made her choice,” I said, my voice rough. “I made mine.”

And yet…The bond pulsed again, stronger this time and so much closer.

My breath hitched.

That wasn’t memory. That wasn’t some lingering echo of what we had. That was now.

“You feel that, don’t you?” Kensley asked quietly.

I didn’t answer, because I didn’t need to.

My body had already gone rigid, every muscle locking into place as something deep in my chest twisted painfully. It wasn’t just the bond anymore. It was instinct and recognition.

She was here.

The realization hit hard enough to make my vision flicker for a split second. The training grounds blurred before snapping back into focus, sharper than before.

“No,” I said immediately, shaking my head as I took a step back. “No, she shouldn’t be here.”

But she was. I could feel it.

After fifteen months of distance, of forcing myself to ignore every pull and every instinct screaming at me to go to her, she was suddenly right there. Close enough that the bond felt alive again in a way I had almost forgotten.

It surged through me, warm and painful all at once, wrapping tight around something in my chest that had been barely holding together.

“Riven—”

“I told you to leave her out of this,” I snapped, my voice cutting through the air as I turned on Kensley. “I want to save her from what I’ll become.”

“I didn’t bring her here,” she shot back. “Her parents did and the Alpha King allowed it.”

A bitter laugh threatened to surface, but I swallowed it down as I turned away from her again, my gaze locking onto the horizon as if I could anchor myself there.

This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be.

I had spent over a year making sure there was a distance between us. Every decision, every step I took had been for that one purpose.

And now she was here, anyway.

The bond tightened again, sharper this time, almost desperately.

Go to her.

The thought wasn’t mine. It slipped in too easily, too smoothly, threading through my mind in a way that made my stomach twist.

I stiffened.

“No,” I muttered under my breath.

Kensley frowned. “What?”

“Nothing,” I said quickly, but my focus had already shifted inward.

There it was. That quiet, crawling presence I had learned to recognize over the last year. It wasn’t loud like before. It didn’t push or claw its way to the surface.

It whispered. You feel her.

My jaw clenched as I forced my breathing to stay even.

“Stay out of this,” I muttered.

It didn’t listen and it never would. The demon was as pushy as ever.

You stayed away for so long… and now she came back to you.

My hands curled into fists at my sides, my nails biting into my palms as I focused on the pain instead of the voice.

“This doesn’t change anything,” I said, more to myself than anyone else.

But even I didn’t believe that. The bond flared again, stronger than before, and this time it dragged something with it.

The emotions I felt weren’t mine.

My breath caught as it hit me all at once. It wasn’t overwhelming like it used to be when we were constantly near each other, but it was there.

My chest tightened painfully as I sucked in a sharp breath, my control slipping for half a second before I forced it back into place.

“She shouldn’t be here,” I said again, but the words came out weaker this time.

Kensley stepped closer, her voice softer now. “Then go tell her that.”

I shook my head immediately. “No.”

“Riven—”

“No,” I snapped, turning on her again. “That’s exactly what I’m not going to do. I can’t go in there and talk to her.

If I saw her, I knew what I would do. I wouldn’t be able to leave. My heart stuttered in my chest.

She wasn’t just here. She was moving.

Toward me. I went completely still.

Every instinct in me sharpened at once, my senses locking onto something I couldn’t even see yet. The wind shifted slightly, carrying a familiar scent with it.

My breath left me in a slow, unsteady exhale.

After all this time…I would have known her anywhere.

My eyes lifted, locking onto the edge of the training grounds just as a figure stepped past the tree line. And for a second, everything else disappeared.

Every reason I had used to keep myself away from her disappeared. All because she was here.

And I wasn’t sure I had it in me to walk away again.