Chapter 19 Resistance
Lira POV
My wolf doesn't lead this pack," he said through clenched teeth.
"Maybe he should." I took another step, close enough now to see the gold flecks burning in his storm-gray eyes. "Maybe you need to stop running from everything that scares you."
"I don't run," he ground out, jaw tight.
"Don't you?" I reached the final step, standing eye-to-eye with him. "You ran from your father's pack. You ran from every relationship that might mean something. And now you're running from me."
His face went stone-cold. "I abandoned my father's pack because he was corrupt. I avoid relationships because they're liabilities. And I'm rejecting you because keeping you will destroy everything I've built."
The words were meant to cut, and they did. But through the bond, I felt what he was really feeling—terror that I would be hurt because of him, desperate need to protect me even from himself.
"You're lying," I said quietly, my eyes never leaving his.
"Am I?" His voice came out rough but defensive.
"You're afraid you'll fail me the way you think you failed everyone else." I stepped closer, my hand rising to press against his chest. "But you won't."
"You don't know that," he said, his voice low, almost pleading.
"I know you." I held his gaze, my palm firm over his heart. "I can feel your soul now, remember? You're not the monster you pretend to be."
For a moment, I thought I'd reached him. His hand came up to cover mine, the bond pulsing with his wavering resolve.
Then he stepped back, breaking the contact. His expression hardened.
"Begin the ritual," he commanded the room, his tone absolute.
"Alpha," Aria protested, her voice urgent. "Please reconsider—"
"Now," he barked, cutting her off.
The healer hesitated, then nodded reluctantly. "I'll need salt, silver, and..." She looked at me with sympathy. "Blood from both parties."
I felt the first wave of agony as Aria began to gather the ritual components. The bond sensed what was coming and started fighting back, sending sharp pains through my nervous system.
But it was nothing compared to what I felt from Kael.
He's dying, I realized with horror. The bond is trying to kill him for even attempting this.
He stood rigid as a statue, but I could see the sweat beading on his forehead, could feel the agony he was hiding from the pack.
"Stop," I called out. "It's killing him!"
"The ritual requires completion," Aria said, though her voice was uncertain. "If we stop now—"
"He'll die anyway," Thomas interrupted, pushing forward. "Look at him."
Kael's legs gave out. He caught himself against the throne, his face gray with pain.
"Continue," he gritted out.
"Like hell." I rushed to his side, and the moment I touched him, some of the agony receded. The bond recognized us as together and stopped its assault.
"Don't," he whispered. "Let me do this."
"Why?" I knelt beside him, my hands framing his face. "Why is being bound to me so terrible that you'd rather die?"
Through the bond, I felt his defenses crumble. All the real reasons he was afraid poured through our connection—his father's betrayal, the pack members he'd failed to save in exile, the crushing weight of responsibility for three hundred lives.
And underneath it all, the bone-deep terror that loving me would make him weak when his pack needed him strong.
"Because if something happens to you," he whispered only to me, "I'll burn the world down to get you back. And my pack will pay the price for my madness."
The raw honesty in his voice broke my heart. "Then don't let anything happen to me."
"I can't control everything."
"You don't have to." I pressed my forehead to his. "You just have to trust me to be strong enough to stand beside you."
For a long moment, we stayed like that—alpha and mate, sharing pain and breath and the steady pulse of a bond that refused to break.
Finally, Kael straightened. "Cancel the ritual," he told Aria.
The healer sagged with relief. "Yes, Alpha."
"But this doesn't mean" he started to say.
"I know." I cut him off. "This doesn't fix anything between us. But at least we're both still alive to figure it out."
He nodded curtly, then addressed the pack. "Return to your duties. We leave for Silvermoon territory at dawn."
As the crowd dispersed, whispering among themselves, I felt the bond settling more securely into place. Kael might have accepted that he couldn't reject me, but I could feel his walls going back up, his determination to keep me at arm's length.
One battle at a time, I told myself.