Page 79 of Fated to the Lone Shifter
Because she already knows.
Because she’s Fae.
Because she’s Sera’s cousin.
And because, even when I didn’t know it, she’s the one person who’s seen every side of me—the rage, the grief, the loneliness—and never flinched.
She dips a cloth into a carved bowl I didn’t see her pull out—a smooth onyx vessel etched with faint runes that catch the low light—and presses it to Marcus’s forehead. The cloth smells faintly of crushed herbs and singed pine, the scent wrapping around the room like a protective ward. She presses it to Marcus’s forehead. A faint shimmer curls off his skin where it touches—part steam, part spell.
“He’ll make it,” she says softly. “But he’s going to need you. Every hour. Every minute.”
“I know.”
I sink into the desk chair, arms resting on my knees, gaze fixed on the floor.
“I thought I could keep handling everything myself. No pack. No ties. No risks.”
Tori doesn’t respond right away. She just tends Marcus’s chest, murmuring something in a tongue I don’t recognize—Fae, probably. It sounds like water moving through roots.
“You’ve done a good job surviving alone,” she finally says. “But survival’s not enough anymore.”
I meet her eyes. “I feel it, Tori. I feel the walls closing in. Bode has her..”
She winces. This is news to her.
“I haven’t been able to read her all night. I thought maybe she was with the same people that took us earlier today.”
“No. Bode has her, and he wants to mark her.”
I grip the bedframe so hard the wood groans. “If I don’t act now, I’ll lose her. But I can’t just charge in. Not without a plan. Not without… help.”
“You’re starting to understand,” she says, but her calm is breaking down.
“Understand what?”
“That lone wolves die,” she says simply. “But packs endure.”
I stare at her. “I don’t have a pack.”
Her smile is soft. “Not yet. But youcould.”
She rises from the bed and moves to stand beside me. “Noah, you’ve always protected others like it was instinct. Like it was your purpose. That’s pack behavior. You just never let anyone protectyouback.”
I laugh, bitter. “Didn’t know I was allowed.”
“How would you know? There was no one there to teach you. But you are allowed now. Because whether you meant to or not, you started something with Marcus. You created a bond. That’s not just biology—it’s spiritual. Elemental. Unbreakable.
She kneels in front of me, resting a cool hand over mine. “You need more. More anchors. More loyalty. More voices. But a pack isn’t built from dominance, from your need—it’s built from choice. And you have to let themchooseyou.”
I shake my head. “Whoever I bring in will be at risk. What if I lead them straight into Bode’s fire?”
“Then you face it together. That’s what pack means.”
Her voice is like a thread pulling me back from the brink.
“And what about the fact that I’m in love with a witch who might very well be marked by a rival alpha?”
Tori just lifts an eyebrow. “Sera’s a firestorm. She always has been. But she burns brightest with people who steady her fire—who ground her magic, not cage it. And I’ve felt it. You’re already her anchor, Noah. You just need to know that, whatever happens, she belongs to you…mark or no mark..”
