Chapter 201 CHAPTER 201
Something had been living beneath Kael’s skin for weeks. Like a quiet irritation he could not scratch.
A constant sense that something was missing, something important, something that should have been there but wasn’t. He could not name it. He could not see it. But he felt it every moment he moved, every time he tried to settle, every time the silence of the wolf realm pressed too close around him.
He paced the clearing again, his paws pressing into the soft ground in restless circles that had long since worn a path into the earth. His movements were sharp, unsettled, his tail flicking in agitation while his ears remained half-flattened against his head.
It was not natural.
A wolf was not meant to exist without his human.
The bond should have been there - warm, steady, grounding. He should have been able to feel Sebastian, to sense him, to hear him in the quiet way wolves always did.
But there was nothing.
Just emptiness.
Kael let out a low, frustrated growl, his pace quickening as the unease inside him sharpened.
“He should be here.”
His voice came out rough, edged with instinct more than thought as he turned toward the healer, who stood a short distance away, watching him with that same calm that Kael had come to resent.
“I should be with him,” Kael continued, his head lowering slightly, his shoulders tightening. “I can’t feel him. I can’t hear him. That is not right.”
The healer did not move.
“It is not right,” the old wolf agreed quietly. “But it is necessary.”
Kael’s ears pinned back.
“Necessary?” he echoed, a sharper growl threading through the word as his teeth showed briefly. “You call this necessary?”
He turned away, pacing again, his claws digging slightly into the ground as his agitation built.
“I remember him,” Kael went on, his voice dropping, rougher now. “I remember Sebastian. I remember his scent. His voice. His thoughts.” He paused, his body stilling for a brief moment.
For a fraction of a second, something flickered deep inside him.
A faint discomfort.
A shadow of something wrong.
But it passed too quickly to grasp.
His tail lashed once.
“And now I am here,” he continued, the frustration returning. “Separated from him. Surrounded by strangers who tell me I cannot go back.”
He turned sharply toward the healer again.
“That is not protection,” he said. “That is imprisonment.”
The healer’s gaze remained steady.
“You are here because your bond was damaged,” he said gently. “And because your body was close to failing.”
Kael’s ears twitched.
Fragments of something stirred at the edge of his awareness.
Weakness.
Pain.
A draining, hollow feeling.
But the memory would not form.
His growl deepened.
“You keep saying that,” he snapped. “But I do not remember it.”
The healer stepped forward slightly, his voice still calm but firmer now.
“You were dying, Kael. And another wolf took that burden from you.”
Kael stilled.
His head tilted slightly.
Something in those words tugged at him, faint and distant, like a scent carried on the wind that disappeared the moment he tried to follow it.
Another wolf.
A sacrifice.
There should have been meaning there.
There wasn’t.
His frustration surged again.
“Then why do I not remember it?” he demanded.
Before the healer could answer, the air shifted.
Kael felt it immediately.
His body went rigid, his head snapping toward the edge of the clearing as his senses sharpened.
A presence.
Familiar.
Strong.
Liam stepped into the clearing, his wolf Kane steady and composed by his side, his gaze moving first to the healer before settling on Kael.
Relief flickered briefly in the healer’s expression.
“You’re right on time, he needs to hear about his human.” he said quietly.
Kael did not care about that.
The moment his eyes locked onto Liam, something inside him surged forward - instinct, urgency, something deeper than thought.
“Take me to him.”
The demand came low, immediate, carried on a sharp breath as Kael took a step forward, his body tense, ready.
“I want my human.”
Liam did not move closer.
“Kael…”
“Take me to Sebastian,” Kael cut in, his voice rising into a rough growl, his tail lashing behind him. “Now.”
Liam held his gaze steadily.
“Sebastian is safe.”
Kael froze.
The words hit something deep inside him.
Safe.
A flicker of relief moved through his chest, brief but real.
“You’ve seen him?” Kael asked, his voice quieter now, but still tight.
“Yes.”
Kael stepped forward again, urgency returning immediately.
“Then take me to him.”
Liam did not move.
“Not yet.”
The words struck harder this time.
Kael’s ears flattened fully.
“Not yet?” he repeated, disbelief and anger rising together. “That is not your choice.”
“It is,” Liam said calmly.
Kael’s lips pulled back, a low, warning growl building in his chest.
“You said he was in danger,” Kael continued, his pacing resuming in tight, sharp circles. “You said I could not return because of Sarah.”
The name came with certainty.
With belief.
“She would not harm him,” Kael added, his tone firm despite the faint, unexplained tension that stirred again beneath the words. “She cares for him.”
Liam’s gaze hardened slightly.
“Sebastian knows the truth now,” he said instead. “He is no longer under her influence.”
Kael’s breathing quickened slightly.
“Then all the more reason to take me to him,” he insisted. “He will tell me himself.”
Liam’s silence answered before his words did.
“No.”
That was enough.
The tension snapped.
Kael lunged.
His body moved on instinct, fast and direct, his claws aimed forward as his frustration and mistrust drove him without restraint.
But he did not reach Liam.
The air shifted.
A force pressed against him, invisible but absolute, halting his movement mid-stride. His limbs locked, his body resisting but unable to break through whatever held him.
A low, confused sound left his throat as the strength drained from his muscles, replaced by a heavy, unnatural calm.
“What… is this…” he forced out, his voice weakening.
“Rest,” Liam said quietly.
Kael’s legs gave out beneath him.
The ground met him softly as his vision dimmed, the world slipping away despite the anger still burning faintly in his chest.
Darkness took him.
Silence followed.
The healer exhaled slowly, his gaze moving from Kael’s still form to Liam.
“You are using your warden powers more easily now,” he observed.
Liam glanced down at Kael.
“I am learning.”
The healer stepped closer, his expression thoughtful.
“And yet you choose to keep him here,” he said. “You see what this is doing to him.”
Liam’s jaw tightened slightly.
“I do.”
“Then why not return him?” the healer pressed. “If his human is safe, if the danger has passed, then keeping him here will only break him further.”
Liam was quiet for a moment.
Then he spoke.
“Because Sebastian is in prison at Mooncrest with the rest of the elders.”
The healer stilled.
“And you believe that will matter to him?”
Liam’s gaze returned to Kael.
“He already believes we are the enemy,” he said. “If he sees Sebastian imprisoned, he will not listen to anything else.”
The healer considered that.
“And if Sebastian explains?”
Liam shook his head.
“He will think Sebastian has been manipulated. Forced to speak against Sarah.”
The healer’s expression darkened slightly.
Liam’s voice was quiet, but certain.
“We have to wait for him to remember.”
His gaze lingered on Kael.
“Or for Sebastian to be free.”
The healer let out a slow breath.
“That is a fragile path.”
Liam did not argue.
“I know.”
The clearing settled back into stillness, but the tension did not leave.
Because beneath the silence, one truth remained.
Kael was running out of time.
And so were they.