Chapter 150 Bonded - Callista's POV

Chapter 150 Bonded - Callista's POV
It moved to my throat.

His lips found the place where his mark should have been and would be. I felt his teeth next, though he didn’t strike. This was my only chance.

This was the window. It would not stay open.

Moon Goddess, I said, not out loud but in the deep interior place where I had heard her voice twice now. I know this isn't how it's supposed to happen. I know we're three weeks from the full moon and the ceremony and everything we planned for. I felt tears streaming down my face and didn't try to stop them. But he is going to kill me. And I am not afraid to die for him but I am not willing to leave him to this. So if there is any part of your design that accounts for two people who have chosen each other completely, who have closed every fracture and taken down every wall and stopped leaving themselves room to run—if that is enough—then let it be enough right now.

I tilted my neck.

And I bit him. I sank my teeth deep into the place on his shoulder where his mate’s mark was, the one I had left before and would have repeated in three weeks under the full moon to finish binding us. 

The reaction was immediate. He reared back, jerking his shoulder free from my grasp, as a sound neither demon nor Riven came out of his mouth. The bond sparked again, flaring to life and so much stronger than before.

I felt it in my bones. I felt it on my shoulder where the Moon Marks were.

The demon screamed. It was an odd sensation that moved through the bond like something being torn from a place it had held onto for a very long time, then fell silent.

The silence was profound. I had never experienced it like this. Riven collapsed against me, pinning me in place beneath him. He was breathing, even though it was ragged.

“Riven,” I whispered. “Are you okay?”

I struggled to hold his head up so I could look at him.

“Open your eyes.”

They fluttered open. I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw the red-gold hue, glowing in the dim light.

“You’re you. You’re back.”

He cracked a smile before his eyes went to my shoulder. He struck quickly, marking me as he propped himself up on one elbow and stroked my side with his other hand.

As soon as the sting of his bite was over, his eyes found mine.

"Callista," he said, and his voice was entirely his own and entirely wrecked. It was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard. “I could have killed you.”

“But you didn’t.”

"What did you—" He stopped. His hand came up slowly and found his shoulder, the place where I had bitten him, and I watched his expression change as he felt it.

"The Moon Goddess said to love him through the darkness," I whispered. "So I did."

He stared at me.

"The demon," he started and stopped again. “Is he—”

“He should be gone,” I murmured. “How do you feel?”

He was quiet for a moment, turned inward, checking the way he always checked, looking for the thing that had been there his entire life.

When he looked back at me, his eyes were still clear. Something in them was so open and unguarded that I felt the full weight of what we had just done settle through me like the warmest thing I had ever felt.

"It's gone," he breathed. "I can't feel it. I’m free.”

I pressed my forehead against his. Outside, the door opened. Light flooded the room.

"Callista?" My mother's voice filled the air, completely alarmed.

"We're here," I called back, my voice rough. "We're alright. We're both alright."

She stopped when she saw us, her eyes avoiding my mate’s bare body on top of mine.

My father and Sabine were right behind her, coming to a skidding stop. My mother covered her mouth with her hand while my father just shook his head.

“It’s done?”

"It's done?" He asked.

I looked at Riven. Riven looked at me with those clear, unburdened eyes.

"It's done," he said softly.

Sabine pushed past both our parents, dropped to the floor in front of us with the complete disregard for dignity that was entirely characteristic of her, and grabbed my face in both hands the way I had grabbed Riven's.

"You bit him without a full moon," she stated plainly and loud enough for all to hear.

"Yes."

"You forced a bonding ceremony on your own."

"The Moon Goddess helped."

She stared at me for a long moment with the expression she wore when she was deciding whether to be furious or impressed.

"You are so much trouble," she said finally, and pulled me into her arms so hard it hurt my ribs, and I let her, because she was alive and so was I and so was the person currently trying to get himself upright on my family’s living room floor.

Raze, I thought suddenly.

I pulled back from Sabine. "Raze. The others—"

"We need to go back," Riven said, already finding his feet with the determination of someone who had just had something enormous happen to them and was choosing to process it while moving rather than staying still. He reached down and pulled me up. "If my demon is gone, his should be weakened. We need to get to him before—"

"Before anyone else does," I finished.

He looked at me, and in his eyes was everything we still had ahead of us. Raze. Alric and Dorian. Whatever had happened to Ronan at the clearing. The tribunal. The packs.

All of it.

But underneath all of it, blazing warm and permanent and completely sealed, was the bond.

“Let’s go now and…take care of things,” I whispered. “Then once this is over, I vote for a very long nap.”