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Not this close
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2026-09-13 06:23:23Kael’s POV
North Ridge has never felt this small.
We walk through the gates in the thick heat of mid-afternoon and the pack goes quiet. Not fear. Not anger. Waiting. Every wolf has agreed not to decide about her until the rite forces them to. A few nod at me out of habit. None of them look at Lyra long enough to mean it.
I don’t look away from her. I can’t.
I take her straight to my house. The pack hall can wait. She needs rest, and some part of me is not ready to hand her back to the world yet.
She sits on the edge of my bed, hands folded, ankle propped on the cushion I shoved under it without asking. I set water in front of her. She stares at it like it's a problem she has to solve before she can touch it.
“Why do you keep doing that?” I ask.
“What?”
“Holding back. One hand ready to run.”
She doesn’t answer. Just lets out a long, quiet breath and looks past me.
I kneel in front of her before I decide to. Take her ankle in my hands, gentler than I need to be. The bruising is almost gone. My thumb traces the last of it once.
“It’s healing,” I say.
Then I look up. Past her knee, past her hands, into her eyes, and I stay there.
“Lyra. Trust me.” My voice comes out lower than I mean it to. “I’ll hold your hand. No one gets near you.”
Something in her cracks open at the edges.
“Will you?” she asks. “None of us know what happens tonight. If they find out there’s no bond… what am I supposed to do then?”
“I’ll handle it.” I don’t let go of her ankle. “Just trust me.”
She’s looking at me like she wants to believe it and no longer knows how. I never get the chance to find out if she would have.
The knock hits the door hard. It opens before I can answer.
Mara stands there with two others behind her. I’m on my feet before I register standing.
“She can’t be here,” Mara says. Her eyes flick to Lyra, then to me, then away like the sight of us is already too much. “Not tonight. Not this close to the rite.”
“Explain.”
“You know the law, Kael. Stay together too long before the binding and your scents start answering each other early. It muddies the proof. The pack won’t be able to tell if the bond is real or if it’s just…” She stops, chooses the next word carefully. “Habit. We need a clean verdict tonight. Not one you talked her into.”
I hate how much sense it makes.
“She’s not going anywhere else,” I say. “I’ll take the guest room. She stays here.”
“That’s not the point and you know it.”
“I don’t want her alone, Mara. I don’t want her somewhere she doesn’t know, with people who haven’t decided if they trust her yet.”
Something shifts in Mara’s eyes—quick, like she’s shutting a door before anyone can see through it. Her jaw tightens. For a second she looks like she’s carrying something heavy she doesn’t want either of us to notice.
Then she looks at me, and it isn’t any look I’ve seen on her before. Annoyed. Amused. Furious. Tired. I’ve seen all of those. This one is deeper. Darker. Something in me doesn’t want to know what’s under it.
“Let her stay with me,” she says.
Her voice is steady.
She isn’t.
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