Slain

You don't talk to no one

Don't you look at nothing

Focus on me

Look into my eyes

Come a little closer

Eat your ego honey

Swallow your own pride

–Your Mine, Phantogram

<><><>

I find myself staring at him. In all the time I’ve spent trapped with the wolves, forced to be with Fluffy nearly every day for a month, I haven’t really looked at him. I suppose it was my anger that kept me from seeing him. My anger at the wolves for taking my best friend and father from me, anger at the wolves for ordering the death of all women like me, and anger at myself for breaking my promise to Zaire.

When he died, I promised I would get revenge for him. I said I would make the wolves pay for his death, but now, looking at Fluffy’s sleeping form, his dark eyelashes and stubbled jaw, I realize I can’t do that. If I do, I’ll be hurting Fluffy. But if I don’t then I’ve broken my final promise to my childhood friend. My only friend.

I lean my head back against the rocks and close my eyes. What can I do now? Everything has gone so wrong; I don’t even know where to go from here.

“Don’t stop,” Fluffy mutters, startling me.

“I thought you were asleep,” I say as I go back to combing through his hair with my fingers.

“I was until you stopped.”

I can’t stop the small smile that stretches across my face. “Sorry, I won’t stop this time.”

The cave is silent again after that. The scratches on his chest have already begun to heal, most of them pink little scars that will fade to nothing in the next few minutes.

Akira sits at the entrance leaned against the rock opening with his eyes closed. I suspect he’s still awake, listening for anyone approaching. What will happen to his mate—his family—now that I’ve started a war between the packs? I doubt the other alphas will allow Nexus and his pack to live in peace while they hunt for me. He should be at home, protecting his family, but because of me and his duty to his pack, he’s far away from them where he can’t help if they need him.

I clench my teeth, forcing away the urge to cry. My own idiocy caused all of this. The alpha’s agreed to let me live at the small price of binding myself to Fluffy. Now that doesn’t seem like such a terrible consequence. If only I had let go of my pride sooner; it would have been less painful than being humbled by Damon and the other alphas.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Fluffy asks softly. He stares up at me, his brow furrowed in concern.

I shake my head. “Its nothing, I’m fine.”

He sits up, turning to face me. “You’ve been through a lot, you have to be feeling something.”

I study him for a moment, trying to decide how much to say, or even to say anything at all. Something about explaining my guilt and anger feels too intimate, like I’m showing more of myself than I’m willing to show the rest of the world.

“I’m just tired,” I finally mutter.

He seems disappointed, but doesn’t ask anything more. Instead, he leans back against the cave wall. “You should try to sleep a little.”

I look at him like he’s lost his mind. “I wasn’t the one fight other wolves and running for hours. You rest.”

“I rested enough,” he assures me and by the way he rests his head against the wall, I know that’s the end of the argument.

I cross my arms over my chest in irritation. “Then it looks like neither of us are sleeping.”

“Moons, one of you go to sleep,” Akira groans from the entrance.

I lift my eyebrows and look at Fluffy. “You heard him. Go to sleep.”

“No.”

“You two are impossible.”

<><><>

After about an hour of Fluffy and I stubbornly refusing to sleep, Fluffy stands. “We should get moving.”

I look up at him from the floor. “Where are we even going?”

“I don’t know yet. Away.”

“Shouldn’t we figure that out?”

“We need to get far enough away from the packs first.” He reaches into the crevice in the stones, pulling out a small drawstring bag.

“What happened to me?” I ask as I watch him in the sun light, trying not to focus on his physique.

He doesn’t look at me. “I’m not sure.”

“But you have an idea, don’t you.”

Finally, he meets my eyes. “Damon may have used the blood he took from you to create a blood bond.”

“A what?” Since the Great War, Leonae have steered clear of magic crafters, so I know very little about magic in general.

He sighs, glancing over at Akira who’s pretending not to listen. “I don’t even know if that’s what happened.”

“What is a blood bond,” I ask more forcefully. By his expression and how he’s avoiding the question, I get the feeling it’s pretty bad.

“You remember how I told you that wolves used to mark each other during the bonding ceremony before the fae gifted us with words?” I nod, beginning to feel sick. “It’s similar to bonding, but much more invasive.”

He pauses to gauge my reaction. I’m not panicking yet so he continues. “Marking goes both ways, where each person takes a little of the others blood and binds them together for eternity. A blood bond is a one sided connection. The more blood taken from the servant, the more control the host has over them.” He pauses again, waiting for a reaction I don’t give. “But your blood was taken forcefully and the connection made without you knowing, which will limit what he can do.”

“Is that why it was so painful?” I can’t seem to process what he’s told me. Damon made a blood connection with me?

He nods. “I think so. I don’t know much about it, wolves normally only bond with their mates. To create a bond like this, he would have needed a powerful sorcerer, maybe multiple.”

Akira has given up pretending to ignore us. He turns around with sympathetic eyes. “We need to figure out how to break the bond before it’s strong enough for him to use.”

I blink at the ground, trying to wrap my mind around this. “How do we do that?”

“We’ll need a sorcerer.”

“What about a magic crafter?” I ask, remembering the witch we took captive before I left my pride.

“A witch?” Fluffy frowns. “Maybe, though they aren’t as powerful as sorcerers. And they’re difficult to work with.”

“Don’t wolves deal with them all the time? I mean, you had witches curse my people and they cast spells on buildings in your pack,” I point out in confusion.

Fluffy nods. “Yes, but we haven’t had much contact with them lately. There was a falling out between the wolves and witches a few years ago.”

“There’s a witch in my pride. We took her captive when my pride was attacked.”

Fluffy raises his eyebrows furrow. “Would they still have her there?”

I shrug. “It’s worth a shot, isn’t it?”

He thinks for a moment, weighing the pros and cons.

“We don’t know where any of the covens are right now,” Akira points out. “If she is still there, then this may be the fastest option. Faster than hunting a coven down, anyway.”

Finally, Fluffy agrees. “Akira, let Nexus know what we’re doing. We’ll move out in a few minutes.”

He turns back to me, his expression dark. “We’ll break this bond, I promise.”

A feeling of foreboding settles over me. I hope desperately that Fluffy’s right, but my gut tells me things are going to get a lot worse.