Page 52 of Collar Me Crazy
"You keep stumbling on that last part," Varric observed. "What does your wolf tell you about sacrifice?"
"That it doesn't like the word." A headache was forming. "Every time I read that line, my animal side wants to run. Not because it's afraid of dying, but because it's afraid of losing something precious."
"And what's precious to a mated wolf?"
"His mate." The answer came without thought. "Sonya."
Varric nodded slowly. "The prophecy doesn't say death, Ryker. It says sacrifice. Those are different things."
"Are they? Because in my experience, sacrifice usually means someone dies to save everyone else."
"Sometimes. But sometimes it means giving up something else entirely." Varric traced one of the carved symbols with a weathered finger. "What if the sacrifice isn't your life or hers, but something about how you've chosen to live?"
Ryker stared at the prophecy, trying to see past his own fears to whatever deeper meaning might be hidden in the ancient words. "I don't understand."
"You've spent your entire adult life in isolation, convinced that caring about people puts them in danger. What if the sacrifice is that isolation itself? What if binding the realms requires you to finally, completely, trust in connection instead of separation?"
The idea made Ryker's wolf pace restlessly. "That doesn't sound like sacrifice. That sounds like... happiness."
"And you don't think you deserve happiness?"
The question hit harder than expected. "I think happiness has a way of getting the people I care about killed."
"Or maybe fear has a way of preventing you from fully protecting them." Varric's tone turned gentle but challenging. "Tell me, last night during the attack, when you shifted to defend Sonya and the town—did your wolf hesitate?"
"No."
"Did it worry about prophecies or consequences or whether you deserved to have a mate?"
"No, it just... acted. Protected what was ours."
"Exactly. Your wolf understands something your human mind keeps fighting. Connection makes you stronger, not weaker. Trust makes you more effective, not less."
Ryker looked down at the prophecy again, the words seeming less threatening somehow. "So the sacrifice might be my fear? My need to control everything by staying away from it?"
"Read the line again. 'Only sacrifice can set things right.' What if setting things right means choosing trust over fear, connection over isolation, love over safety?"
Before Ryker could respond, footsteps approached through the trees. Emmett and Callum emerged into the glade, both carrying the kind of purposeful energy that meant serious business.
"Sorry to interrupt," Emmett said, "but we need to talk strategy."
"What kind of strategy?" Varric asked.
"The kind where we figure out how to keep Ryker and Sonya alive while they're completing their bond," Callum said bluntly. "Because if the Void is planning a coordinated attack during Thanksgiving, they're going to need protection during their most vulnerable moment."
Ryker felt his defensive instincts flare. "I can protect her."
"Not if you're in the middle of a claiming ritual," Emmett pointed out. "You'll be focused on other things."
Ryker forced himself to think tactically. "You're right. We'll be distracted."
"More than distracted," Callum added. "Completely absorbed in each other. Which is exactly when the Void will strike."
"So we create a defensive perimeter," Varric said, his tactical mind already working. "The other couples maintain the protective circle while the eighth bond completes."
"That could work," Emmett agreed. "But we need to know exactly when and where this is happening. Timing will be everything."
Ryker looked at the prophecy again, noting how the archaic language seemed to pulse with hidden meaning. "The prophecy mentions 'when the circle completely closes and love completes the ring.' That has to refer to the moment of claiming."
