Chapter 35 New Dynamic

Chapter 35 New Dynamic


The pack noticed before I did.

I walked through the great hall on my way to the healing house, and heads turned. Warriors who usually ignored me stared. Servants whispered behind their hands. Even the elders at their morning meeting paused to watch me pass.

I didn't understand until I reached the doors and felt him behind me. I turned. Garrick stood twenty feet away, talking to Calder, but his eyes were on me. Had been on me, I realized, since I entered the hall.

The awareness hummed between us. That bond, that connection, pulsing like a second heartbeat.

I felt his approval. His want. The possessive satisfaction that came from watching me move through his territory.

I felt it all.

I fled to the healing house.

Eira took one look at me and raised an eyebrow. "So it's true then."

"What's true?"

"The whole pack is talking about it. The way he looks at you. The way you flush when he's near." She handed me a bundle of bandages to fold. "They're saying you've claimed the Alpha."

"I haven't claimed anyone."

"You don't have to. The bond does it for you." Her old eyes held knowing. "I can feel it too, you know. Not the bond itself, but its effects. The air changes when you're both in a room."

I dropped the bandages. "Everyone can feel it?"

"Wolves are sensitive to these things. Mated pairs have a presence. An energy. Yours is particularly strong." She picked up the bandages and pressed them back into my hands. "Congratulations. Or condolences. I haven't decided which."

Before I could respond, the door opened. Garrick filled the frame.

Eira looked at him, then at me, then sighed. "I'll be in the garden. Try not to set anything on fire."

She left.

Garrick crossed to me in three strides. His hands found my waist, pulled me against him. His eyes burned.

"Everyone knows." My voice came out breathless.

"Let them know."

"Garrick—"

"I don't care." He kissed my forehead, my cheek, the corner of my mouth. "I've spent weeks hiding how I feel. I'm done."

"You're Alpha. You can't just—"

"I can do whatever I want." He pulled back just enough to meet my eyes. "I want you. I want everyone to know you're mine. I want to wake up with you and go to sleep with you and spend every moment in between feeling you in my chest."

The bond pulsed with his words. His emotions flooded me. Love, fierce and desperate. Possessiveness, sharp as a blade. Fear, buried deep, that I would run.

I reached up and cupped his face. "I'm not running."

"Promise me."

"I promise."

He kissed me. Deep and claiming and full of everything he couldn't say. I clung to him and kissed him back and let the bond carry us both.

When I finally left the healing house, my lips were swollen and my hair was mussed and I didn't care.

The pack noticed that too.

I walked to the garden to find Eira, and warriors stepped aside. Servants lowered their eyes. Even Calder, crossing the courtyard with his perpetual scowl, nodded once as he passed.

I stopped walking. "Did you just acknowledge my existence?"

He turned back, expression unreadable. "You're his mate. That means you're pack. Real pack, not just borrowed." He paused. "I still don't trust you completely. But I'll stop hoping you fail."

"High praise from you."

"Don't get used to it."

He walked away. I stood in the courtyard, stunned.

Eira found me there. "Progress?"

"I think Calder just gave me his version of a blessing."

"He'll come around. They all will." She linked her arm through mine. "Now walk with an old woman and tell me how you're handling the bond."

"How do you know about the bond?"

"I'm old, not blind. I saw the way you both looked at each other this morning. Like the world had shifted and you were still trying to find your footing." She patted my hand. "It's overwhelming at first. The emotions, the awareness, the constant presence of another person in your head. But it settles."

"It doesn't feel like it's settling."

"It will. Give it time." She stopped at the garden gate. "In the meantime, try not to kill each other with all that tension. The rest of us would like to eat our meals without choking on it."

She left me at the garden gate, laughing despite myself.

I felt him before I saw him.

That pull in my chest, that awareness, that hum that meant he was near. I turned and found him at the edge of the garden, watching me.

"You're lurking."

"I'm observing." He moved closer. "Eira said I should give you space. I'm trying."

"That must be difficult for you."

"Impossibly." He stopped inches away. "I can feel you all the time now. Your mood, your location, the general shape of your thoughts. It's like you're living inside me."

"I know. I feel it too."

He reached out and traced the line of my jaw. "Does it scare you?"

"Yes." I caught his hand, held it against my cheek. "But not as much as losing you would."

His eyes darkened. "You're not losing me. Ever."

"I know."

We stood there in the garden, the bond humming between us, and for a moment the world was exactly as it should be.

The council meeting that afternoon tested everything.

Garrick had asked me to attend. Not as a healer, not as a servant, but as his mate. His equal. His other half.

I sat beside him at the great table, and the elders stared.

"We have matters to discuss that are not suitable for—" Elder Marrick began.

"She stays." Garrick's voice allowed no argument. "She's my mate. She shares my position, my authority, my trust. If you have a problem with that, speak now or hold your tongue permanently."

Silence.

Marrick's jaw worked, but he said nothing. The other elders exchanged glances, then looked away.

The meeting proceeded.

I listened. Learned. Felt Garrick's emotions through the bond as each topic arose. His frustration with border issues. His concern about supplies. His cold fury at reports of Harker's continued provocations.

When the meeting ended, Marrick approached me.

"You may be his mate, but you're still an outsider. Don't expect us to forget that."

Before I could respond, Garrick was there. His hand found the small of my back, possessive and protective.

"Marrick. A word."

They stepped aside. I couldn't hear the conversation, but I felt Garrick's anger spike through the bond, then cool into something dangerous. Marrick's face paled. He nodded once and left quickly.

Garrick returned to me. "Problem solved."

"What did you say to him?"

"That questioning my mate's place questions my authority. And questioning my authority has consequences." He pulled me close. "I won't let anyone make you feel unwelcome. Not here. Not ever."

"I can fight my own battles."

"I know. But you don't have to." He kissed my forehead. "That's what mates are for."

That night, in his rooms, we explored the bond together.

"It's stronger when we touch." He lay beside me, his hand on my bare stomach, tracing lazy patterns. "I can feel everything. Your heartbeat. Your breathing. The way you feel right now."

"How do I feel?"

"Safe. Content. A little tired." He smiled. "Also hungry. You skipped dinner."

I laughed. "You can feel that?"

"The bond doesn't lie." He leaned over and kissed me. "What do you feel from me?"

I closed my eyes and focused. The bond pulsed, alive between us. "Love. A lot of love. Possessiveness. Want. Underneath it all, fear that I'll leave."

His jaw tightened. "I told you—"

"I know what you told me. But I feel what you feel, Garrick. The fear is real. I need you to trust that I'm not going anywhere."

He was quiet for a long moment. Then: "I'm trying."

"I know. Keep trying." I pulled him closer. "We have time."

We lay there in the darkness, wrapped in each other, the bond humming between us. It was terrifying and wonderful and absolutely real.

And it was ours.

Morning came too soon.

I woke in his arms, the bond already pulsing with awareness. He was awake too, watching me.

"You're staring."

"I'm admiring." He kissed my shoulder. "There's a difference."

"Not according to you."

He smiled. Actually smiled, warm and unguarded. "I love you."

"I love you too."

We lay there for a while longer, neither willing to break the spell. But the world waited. Duties called. The pack needed its Alpha and its healer.

"I should go." I didn't move.

"You should." He didn't either.

Finally, I forced myself out of bed. Found my clothes. Dressed under his watchful eyes.

At the door, I paused. "I'll feel you all day."

"I know. I'll feel you too." He sat up, the blankets falling. "It's the best part of my day. Knowing you're there."

I crossed back and kissed him one last time. "Get some sleep. You were up half the night."

"Worth it."

I left with his laughter following me and his love warm in my chest.

The healing house was busy that morning. Three warriors with training injuries. A child with a cough. An elder with joint pain that wouldn't quit.

I moved through them all, working on instinct, my mind half on my patients and half on the man I could feel in the back of my consciousness. He was in the training yard now. Then his study. Then the great hall for meetings.

I felt his frustration spike during a particularly difficult council discussion. His satisfaction when a patrol returned safely. His hunger at midday, which made me realize I hadn't eaten either.

Eira found me staring at a wall, a poultice half-made in my hands.

"Bond overwhelm?"

"Something like that." I shook myself back to the present. "I can feel everything. All the time. It's distracting."

"It'll settle. In the meantime, eat something. He's hungry, which means you're hungry, which means you're useless until you fix it."

She was right. I ate. The distraction faded.

But the bond never did.