A BOND THAT SHOULD BE DEAD

 AUTHOR’S POV 

Kaiden had faced rogues with blood on their claws, enemies who wanted his head, and nights when the screams of the dying filled the darkness around him.

Yet none of those things had unsettled him as much as the moment Elena's skin touched his.

He could still feel it.

That strange pulse had passed through him like lightning, stealing his breath and leaving something unfamiliar lodged beneath his ribs. For a brief, impossible moment, he had felt what Elena felt. Her fear. Her grief. The pain she had buried so deeply that even her expression no longer betrayed it.

And beneath those emotions, he had sensed the terrible loneliness she had carried after leaving Blackthorn.

It had been like standing inside a wound he had inflicted with his own hands.

But that was not the part that troubled him most.

He had also felt his own emotions reflected through the strange connection. His fear when she nearly fell. His desperation to keep her from getting hurt. The longing he had spent three years refusing to acknowledge.

It had been too real to dismiss as imagination.

And too impossible to understand.

"You're going to wear a hole in that floor if you keep pacing."

Rowan's voice pulled him from his thoughts.

Kaiden stopped beside the narrow window of the room they had been assigned. Beyond it, the northern section of Haven was slowly coming to life. Survivors moved between the buildings carrying buckets, bundles of firewood, and tools. Two young men were repairing a damaged fence while an older woman sat outside her shelter, sorting what looked like dried herbs.

"I need to speak with someone," Kaiden said.

Rowan leaned against the wall. "Elena?"

"No."

The answer came too quickly.

Rowan raised an eyebrow but wisely kept his thoughts to himself.

Kaiden pulled on his jacket. "Is there an experienced healer among the survivors? Someone who understands the old traditions?"

"An experienced healer?" Rowan considered the question. "There is an elderly woman staying near the infirmary. Her name is Maera. She belonged to a small pack in the eastern mountains before the plague destroyed it. She has treated wolves for decades."

"Take me to her."

"Now?"

"Do you have somewhere more important to be?"

Rowan straightened. "No, Alpha."

The title slipped out naturally.

Kaiden almost corrected him. Instead, he turned toward the door.

He needed answers, and he needed them before that inexplicable connection happened again.

Because if there was one thing he could not afford, it was allowing himself to believe that Elena's touch meant he had been given another chance.

He had already made that mistake once—believing that because she was his fated mate, she would always be there.

He would not make it again.

At least, that was what he told himself as he followed Rowan toward the infirmary.

Maera lived in a small building behind the infirmary, where the air smelled of dried leaves, bitter roots, and woodsmoke. Shelves covered one wall, crowded with glass jars and bundles of herbs tied with twine. A narrow bed stood beneath the window, and a wooden table occupied the center of the room.

The woman sitting at the table looked older than most wolves Kaiden had known. Her silver hair was braided over one shoulder, and deep lines crossed her face. Yet her eyes were sharp, missing little as Kaiden entered.

She glanced at Rowan first.

"Your Alpha has finally remembered that healers exist?"

Rowan coughed into his fist.

Kaiden's jaw tightened. "I was told you have knowledge of the old traditions."

"I do."

"Then I need your advice."

Maera gestured toward the empty chair opposite her. "Sit down, then. Advice is harder to give to someone who insists on looming over the furniture."

Rowan turned his face away, but Kaiden caught the movement of his mouth.

He considered ordering his Beta out.

Instead, he sat.

"I experienced something yesterday," he began. "While helping Elena repair the water line, she nearly fell. I caught her, and when I touched her, something passed between us."

Maera's expression changed.

Not dramatically. Her hands simply stopped moving over the bundle of herbs she had been sorting.

"Describe it."

Kaiden explained the sudden pulse, the emotions he had felt, and the images that had flashed through his mind. He told her how Elena had seemed to experience his emotions as well. He did not mention how deeply her pain had affected him, or how difficult it had been to let go of her once they were safe.

Some things were harder to admit than others.

When he finished, Maera remained silent for several moments.

"How long ago did you reject her?"

"Three years."

"And the bond?"

"It was severed. I felt it break."

Maera nodded slowly, as though his answer confirmed something she had already suspected.

"Then what you experienced was unusual."

"Unusual how?"

"Rejection normally severs the mate bond. Once the rejection is accepted and the connection breaks, the two wolves are no longer bound in the way they were before."

"I know that."

"Do you?" she asked quietly.

Kaiden's gaze sharpened.

Maera did not appear intimidated.

"Knowing what happens to a bond is not the same as understanding what you have lost," she continued. "Many wolves think of the mate bond as a gift they can accept or discard according to their convenience. They forget that it is a connection between two living souls, not a chain placed around another person's neck."

Kaiden looked away.

The words struck closer than he wanted them to.