Page 42 of Faeheart
“I thought I might find you here,” Atlas’s deep voice broke through my spiraling thoughts.
I looked up to see the werewolf standing in the doorway, his massive frame silhouetted against the light from the hallway. Of all the people who might have followed me, Atlas was the last I expected.
“Come to drag me back to my destiny?” I asked, unable to keep the bitterness from my voice.
Atlas snorted, crossing the conservatory to sit beside me. “I’m not dragging anyone anywhere. Just thought you might want some company from someone who understands.”
“Understands what?”
“What it’s like to have your entire life turned upside down by a magical bond you never asked for.” He leaned back, his golden eyes reflecting the soft glow of the fae flowers. “The day I realized Caden was my mate, I nearly ran all the way back to my pack’s territory.”
That surprised me. Atlas had always seemed so certain, so comfortable with his connection to Caden. “Why?”
“Because I was terrified,” he admitted, his voice unusually soft. “I was supposed to be the next alpha. Had my whole life mapped out. Lead the pack, make strategic alliances, and maybe eventually find a nice werewolf girl to have pups with. Then suddenly there’s this shy half-dryad witch boy with freckles, and my wolf is howling that he’s mine.”
I couldn’t help but laugh despite my mood. “Caden does have great freckles.”
“The best,” Atlas agreed with a fond smile. “But that’s not the point. The point is that bonds like these, whether they’re werewolf mate bonds or fae soul recognition, they don’t care about your plans. They don’t care about what’s convenient or what makes sense. They just are.”
“That’s what scares me,” I admitted, plucking a luminescent petal from a nearby flower. “I’ve spent my entire life avoiding anything permanent. Anything that could tie me down.”
“Because you’re afraid of being hurt,” Atlas said. It wasn’t a question.
I glanced at him sharply. “How would you know that?”
“The tetrad bond goes both ways, Wild. We all feel bits and pieces of each other now.” He shrugged those massive shoulders.“Plus, it doesn’t take a genius to see that all your partying and hookups are just ways to keep people at a distance.”
“I like partying and hookups,” I protested, but it sounded weak even to my own ears.
“Sure you do. But you also use them as shields. No one can hurt you if they never get close enough to matter.” Atlas leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “The problem is, Elias already matters. He’s already under your skin. Fighting it is just going to make you both miserable.”
The truth of his words hit me with physical force. Elias did matter. Had mattered from the moment we’d first clashed in Professor Blackwood’s class, though I’d been too stubborn to admit it.
“What if I don’t want to fight in a war?” I whispered. “And what if I’m not what Elias needs or even wants? It seems unfair to force him into a life with me.”
Atlas was quiet for a long moment, the only sound was the gentle rustle of magical plants responding to our emotions. When he finally spoke, his voice carried the weight of hard-won wisdom.
“You think any of us wanted this war?” he asked, gesturing toward the mansion around us. “You think Caden wanted to be hunted for his mixed heritage? You think Elias wanted to discover his family were magical supremacists?” Atlas shook his head. “Sometimes life doesn’t give us choices, Wild. Sometimes we just get thrust into situations and have to figure out how to survive them.” He stood up, placing a hand on my shoulder. “But if you want to go, we won’t stop you. However, before you run away again or avoid a connection, why don’t you just talk to Elias? Ask him whathewants.”
Before I could say anything more, Atlas was walking away. I was left in the conservatory surrounded by fae greenery with my head spinning. I found myself wishing I’d never come toWiddershins Academy, that I’d never left the orgy, that I’d never even met Elias.
I just wanted things to be easy again.
Chapter 16
Elias
Our first full day in the mansion had been tougher than I expected. When I went to bed the previous night with Wild’s cum smeared over my belly and our bond glowing, it felt like everything was right in the world. But the dawn brought reality crashing back in and before I knew it, our entire lives were unraveling at the seams.
Being asked by the Elder Council to help them defeat the Purity Front was so unexpected that I really hadn’t had time to process it. At first, it felt like an honor, a way to salvage the Thorne family name after my parents had sullied it. But the longer I thought about it, the more I didn’t understand.
The Elder Council was a group of the most powerful witches and shifters in the entire world. They helped keep the paranormal world a secret from the humans and cleaned up any messes that threatened our exposure. They also kept the paranormal world in line and prosecuted anyone that broke our most sacred laws. That meant the Purity Front was their responsibility to stop. So why did they need help from a group of college students who had formed an unstudied bond completely by accident?
Wild’s reaction was right. It was completely unfair of them to ask us to permanently bind ourselves together for the rest of our lives and all eternity just because they didn’t want to face the Purity Front head on. Of course, that didn’t stop me from feeling depressed that Wild didn’t want to bond with me. So, I tried to cover it up with anger at the people in charge.
Blackwood had no right to give us the Resonance Stones without fully explaining the risks. The Dean had no right to lock us down after he failed to keep the campus properly warded. And the Elder Council should never have asked us to stop a war for them before it could get out of control. Every single adult who was supposed to be protecting us had failed and now we were the ones that had to pay the price.
I found myself pacing the room Wild and I had shared the night before, my emotions a churning mess of anger, hurt, and confusion. The scent of our intimacy still lingered on the sheets, a painful reminder of how close we’d been just hours ago. Now everything felt fractured, uncertain.
