Something else in the light

KAEL'S POV

I don't let go of her hand the entire walk to my room.

Lyra doesn't pull away either, which feels like its own kind of victory after everything tonight cost us to get here. The house is quiet, the fire in the front room burning low, and for once nothing outside these walls is trying to kill either of us.

I close the door behind us anyway.

Her palm is still bleeding faintly. I nod toward the edge of the bed.

"Sit. Let me look at that properly before it gets infected and gives me one more thing to worry about tonight."

She doesn't argue, which tells me more about how tired she is than anything she's said out loud. I clean the cut with what's in the room and wrap it slowly, the same careful way I did her ankle the night before. My thumb lingers over her palm a beat longer than it needs to once I've tied it off.

"There," I say. "Better."

"Thank you."

I get up to pour her a glass of water from the tap by the window, my back to her for a moment while I do. My eyes never leave her. I stare at her reflection in the window. When I turn around,  cup in hand, she's already crossed half the room toward me.

"You're staring," she says.

"I know."

"Why?"

"Because an hour ago I thought I was going to lose you, and now we are both standing in my room, and I haven't figured out how to stop being amazed by that yet."

Something shifts in her face, soft, unguarded, almost reckless. She closes the space between us before I do, close enough that I feel the heat of her body, close enough that the bond under my skin tightens and thrums like it's been starving for this exact second. The cup ends up somewhere on the table behind me. I don't remember setting it down.

"Kael," she says, quiet.

"Yeah..."

"I don't want to be careful anymore. Not tonight."

I don't need more than that.

My hand finds her jaw. I caress her chin while I look into her eyes. There is something about her eyes. I could get lost in them if I let myself.

My hand slides into her hair. I try to kiss her, but something in me tells me to hold back. She's still shaken, still recovering, and this isn't the right time. I've wanted this since the moment I first caught her scent.

She makes a small sound against my mouth and fists both hands on my shirt, pulling me closer until there's no space left. The bond flares hot under my skin, answering her. I want more than this.

I back her against the wall without thinking. One of her legs hooks around mine. My hands are under her hoodie, palms flat against the warm skin of her waist, then higher. Her bandage scrapes lightly against my neck when she pulls me down.

"Kael..."

"Just kiss me," she says.

I'm half a second from sinking my mouth to hers when someone pounds on the door like the house is on fire.

"Alpha."

Darin's voice, muffled but unmistakable, and not even a little bit apologetic about the timing.

I pull back from kissing her with a low, frustrated sound and rest my forehead against hers, breathing hard. Her lips are open. Her eyes are dark. We don't move for a second.

"This had better be important," I manage.

"Lorenzo wants to see you. Now."

Lyra huffs out something between a laugh and a groan and lets her head fall back against the wall. Her cheeks are flushed in a way that has nothing to do with the fire. She straightens her hoodie with unsteady hands.

"Go," she says, voice still rough. "Before he sends someone worse than Darin."

"There's no one worse than Darin."

"I heard that," Darin says through the door.

I press a kiss to her forehead. "Go have a bath," I say as I go straight to my wardrobe and bring one of my shirts for her for a change. "I will be back soon." I force myself to step back and open the door.

Lorenzo is waiting in the small study off the pack hall, alone, a desk between us. He doesn't look like a man delivering good news.

"You want to see me?" I ask hurriedly.

"Yes. It's about the bond..."

I frown.

"You said the bond is proven," I say, before he can start. "What's changed?"

"Nothing's changed." He folds his hands, choosing his next words with the same care I've watched him use my whole life. "But something's been bothering me since the circle, and I've spent the last hour telling myself it's nothing."

"And now?"

"Now I don't think it's nothing." He meets my eyes. "I've witnessed four true bond confirmations in my life, Kael. I know what that light is supposed to look like when it rises. Yours and Lyra's didn't look like that."

My stomach goes cold. "It's still proven. You said the words yourself."

"The bond is proven," Lorenzo says slowly. "I'm not questioning that part."

"Then what are you questioning?"

He hesitates, the kind of hesitation from a man who's spent his whole life being certain about things.

"I don't know yet," he admits. "But there was something else in that light besides the two of you."