Page 20 of Brody
“You nearly did,” Freya said, the magical binding dissolving into golden motes.“Another minute and the damage might have been permanent.”
We’d saved him.Together.
Despite everything between Brody and me, we’d worked like the perfect team we could have been years ago.
My inner cheetah, usually so reticent, purred with such satisfaction I could feel the vibration against my ribs.See how perfectly we move together?she crooned.Natural.Right.Mate.
It’s just science,I countered internally.Two trained professionals with complementary skills.Anyone with medical training could have done the same.
My cheetah’s laugh rippled through my consciousness, a sound of pure feminine amusement.Lie to yourself if you must,she replied.But your body knows the truth.Your scent changes for him alone.
Instinct isn’t destiny,I argued.Biology isn’t fate.
No,my cheetah agreed, suddenly serious.Choice is fate.And you chose wrong years ago when you let him walk away without a fight.When you didn’t chase him down and claim what was ours.
The accusation hit like a physical blow.Had I been wrong?Should I have pursued him, demanded answers, refused to accept his rejection?Or would that have just stripped away the last shreds of my dignity?
We are predators, not prey,my cheetah reminded me.We do not wait to be chosen.We hunt what belongs to us.
And look where that attitude got us,I shot back.Alone.Independent.Successful on our own terms.
Half alive,my cheetah countered sadly.Half complete.Denying the other half of our soul because of pride.
I had no answer for that.No explanation could justify the hollow ache that had lived beneath my ribs for years, the space where something vital should have been.
And damn her, but she was right.The mate bond that I’d spent decades pretending didn’t exist vibrated between us, golden threads of connection visible only to my mind’s eye but as tangible as physical ropes.
His scent filled my nostrils despite the distance I’d put between us, sandalwood and something uniquely him that my body recognized on a cellular level.
The bond between us had always been there, I realized with a jolt of clarity.I hadn’t destroyed it by rejecting him, only buried it beneath layers of anger and pride and protective walls built over years of determined self-reliance.
And now, in the span of a few intense minutes working together to save Logan, those layers had been stripped away, leaving the connection raw and exposed like a live wire.The energy crackling between us was almost visible judging by the knowing looks several shifters in the room were exchanging.
I took a deep breath, forcing my mind to reassert control.This was just biology, I told myself.Just instincts making sure our kind survived.It didn’t mean anything beyond that.
But even as I thought it, my body called me a liar with every accelerated heartbeat, every heated flush of skin, every breath that unconsciously matched his rhythm.
The room had gone completely silent.Every person present had witnessed not just a medical emergency, but an intervention that actually worked.Where minutes before there had been skepticism and hostility, now there were awe and cautious hope.
“This,” Quinn said, gesturing to Logan, “is exactly why Dr.Dhahabu is here.What you just witnessed is breakthrough treatment in action.”
I straightened, meeting evaluating gazes now fixed on me with renewed interest.
“This is only the beginning,” Brody said.“With proper implementation, we can develop sustainable treatments for every unmated male with pre-feral symptoms in the Ridge.”
But something had broken inside me after the intense minutes of forced cooperation.Years of suppressed rage finally found its target… again.
“We?”I asked, the word triggering every abandonment memory I’d ever suppressed.My skin heated with sudden anger.
“You mean me,” I said, my voice razor-sharp with years of carefully honed self-reliance.“I’ve been working alone on this research for years, just like I’ve done everything else alone since I was seventeen.”
The memories crashed over me like a tidal wave.On my tenth birthday, watching through the window as darkness fell, cake untouched on the table, my father’s promised visit nothing but another broken vow.My mother retreated into her lab after that, a ghost drifting through our house, present but unseeing.
My fingers curled into fists against my thighs, nails biting half-moons into my palms.The pain anchored me to the present, kept me from drowning in the undertow of remembered abandonment.
“I don’t dowe,” I continued, my voice steadier than I felt.“And I especially don’t dowewith you.”
Brody’s shoulders tensed, the muscles in his jaw jumping beneath tanned skin.For a moment, something raw and wounded flashed in his eyes before his expression shuttered, closed, controlled and unreadable once more.
