Chapter 8: Morning After Complications

Cordelia's Pov 

I woke up in my own bed, in my own cottage, with the strangest sensation that I wasn't alone. The mating bond hummed quietly in the back of my mind, a constant awareness of Lysander's presence even though he was miles away at Ravenshollow. 

I could feel his emotional state, a mixture of relief, anxiety, and something that felt suspiciously like contentment.

It was deeply unsettling.

"Right," I said to the ceiling, "this is going to take some getting used to."

My phone buzzed. Three messages from Imogen, two from pack members I barely remembered, and one from an unknown number that I suspected belonged to Lysander. I ignored them all in favour of making tea and pretending yesterday hadn't happened.

The pretending lasted approximately ten minutes.

A knock at my door interrupted my determined denial, and I opened it to find Rupert standing on my doorstep with the resigned expression of a man who'd drawn the short straw.

"Let me guess," I said, stepping aside to let him in. "Pack business."

"I'm afraid so." He accepted the tea I offered with grateful hands. "The council wants to meet with you this afternoon. Formal recognition of your status, that sort of thing."

"How delightfully bureaucratic." I settled into my favourite armchair, the one I'd specifically chosen because it was too small for anyone else to share. "And if I decline?"

"You can't decline. You're the Luna now, Delia. Whether you want to be or not."

The title still felt strange, like wearing someone else's clothes. I'd wanted it once, desperately. Now it felt more like a trap closing around the life I'd so carefully built.

"Has anyone considered that I might not want to be Luna?" I asked. "That perhaps saving Lysander's life doesn't automatically mean I'm ready to take on pack responsibilities again?"

Rupert's expression was sympathetic but firm. "The bond makes it official. There's no separating the role from the relationship, you know that."

I did know that, which made it infinitely more irritating. The supernatural world had little patience for modern concepts like personal autonomy when ancient magic was involved.

"Fine," I said eventually. "But I have conditions."

"I'm listening."

"I keep the studio. I continue selling my pottery. And I want it made clear that I'm not some decorative addition to pack leadership. If I'm doing this, I'm doing it properly."

Before Rupert could respond, another knock interrupted us. This time, I could feel who it was before I opened the door, the bond giving me advance warning that made my stomach flutter with nervous energy.

Lysander stood on my threshold looking remarkably recovered for someone who'd been dying of a supernatural curse less than twenty-four hours ago. His colour was back, the greyish pallor replaced by healthy vitality. 

His eyes were clear, no longer holding that wild desperation that had made him so dangerous.

He was, unfortunately, still devastatingly attractive.

"Hello, Delia."

"Lysander." I didn't move aside to let him in. "Feeling better?"

"Considerably." His gaze moved past me to where Rupert sat with his tea. "Am I interrupting?"

"Pack business," Rupert said diplomatically. "Which I suppose includes you now."

I felt Lysander's flash of amusement through the bond. "How terribly official of us."

Despite myself, I stepped back to let him enter. The cottage immediately felt smaller, overwhelmed by his presence in a way that had nothing to do with physical space and everything to do with the supernatural connection crackling between us.

"I brought coffee," he said, holding up a bag from the village café. "And pastries. Proper ones, not the tragic excuse for croissants they serve at the estate."

It was such a normal gesture, so at odds with the monumental significance of everything that had happened, that I almost smiled. Almost.

"Bribery?" I asked.

"Sustenance. You barely ate yesterday, and I could feel your hunger through the bond this morning."

That stopped me short. Of course he could feel my physical state just as clearly as I could feel his. The mating bond didn't offer much in the way of privacy.

"That's going to be problematic," I said.

"The hunger?"

"The constant awareness. I'd forgotten how... intrusive it could be."

His expression grew serious. "We can work on shielding techniques. Establishing boundaries within the bond. It doesn't have to be overwhelming."

"Can we?" I took the coffee he offered, inhaling the familiar scent of my favourite blend. He'd remembered. "Because I seem to recall that the bond was one of the reasons you rejected me in the first place. 

Too intense, too much responsibility, too much... everything."

The words hung in the air between us, five years of hurt finally finding a voice. Rupert made a small sound that might have been clearing his throat or preparing to flee.

"That wasn't..." Lysander started, then stopped. "You're right. The bond terrified me. The idea that someone could know me that completely, see past all the careful control I'd built up. It was easier to push you away than to risk that vulnerability."

"And now?"

"Now I've spent five years learning what it costs to be afraid of vulnerability." He set down his coffee and looked at me directly. 

"I'm not that man anymore, Delia. The one who chose appearance over truth, politics over connection."

I could feel his sincerity through the bond, the bone-deep certainty of his words. It should have been reassuring. Instead, it made everything more complicated.

"People don't change that fundamentally," I said.

"Don't they?" His smile was sad but genuine. "You did. The woman who saved my life yesterday wasn't the same person I rejected five years ago. You're stronger now, more sure of yourself. You know your own worth in a way you didn't before."

He was right, and I hated that he was right. The cottage around us, the life I'd built, the confidence I'd developed, all of it was proof that I'd grown beyond the woman who'd once defined herself entirely through his approval.

"So what now?" I asked. "We're bonded, the pack expects us to take up our roles, and we're both completely different people than we were when this started.”

“How exactly is this supposed to work?"

"Carefully," he said. "One day at a time. With a great deal of patience and probably several more conversations like this one."

Rupert stood up, clearly recognizing his cue to leave. "I'll tell the council you'll both be there this afternoon."

"Both?" I looked between them.

"Joint leadership," Lysander explained. "It's what you wanted before, isn't it? True partnership?"

It was what I'd wanted. Before. Now I wasn't sure what I wanted, except time to figure out how to be myself while bonded to someone else.