CHAPTER 6: Matebond

Kalev’s POV

"Emergency broadcast hold," I heard myself say. My voice came out level, even though my heart was slamming against my rib cage. "There’s a…terrain anomaly, western ridge. I need eyes on the ground before we resume the feed."

The entire room went still. Emergency broadcast holds were rare. The nobility didn’t like to have the feed interrupted, not even for a few hours. Everyone looked forward to the games all year long.

But my I’d called it before I’d thought about it.

"Authorization?" the duty officer said, watching me with careful eyes.

"Mine,” I replied quickly. “Architect's seal. Log it."

I was already moving for the door. "Thirty minutes. Dark feed. Cut it off. Ground the drones. No one watched the ridge until I’m back.”

"Kalev."

Viktor hadn't moved from his console. He was still looking at the frozen frame, at the girl and the briars. His voice was light and bemused. "What exactly do you think you're going to do down there?"

I had no idea know. That was the honest answer. But Orrin had is paw around my heart, squeezing in time with someone else's pulse. And every second I stood there, I got harder and harder to hear  anything else.

"I’m going to do my job," I said flatly. Then I left before anyone could ask me any more questions.

The helicopter got me to the ridge in under ten minutes.

The blackout meant there were no cameras, no drones, and no Capital eyes.

The briars had made a dome, the thorns as long as my hand, woven as tightly as a basket. They were still growing. I could hear them, creaking like ice forming. There was no gap. When I put my palm against it though, it opened, the thorns curling back like they recognized me.

Inside, the man was on his feet with a hatchet in hand. Good instinct. Behind him stood the kid, a terrified look in his eyes.

And behind the kid, on her knees with green light still bleeding faintly from her, was Senna.

She looked up. Her eyes found mine, and Orrin let out a mournful whine.

"You," she said. Her voice was hoarse. "What are you doing here." Senna rose to her feet, her eyes laced with venom.

Her gaze flicked to my shoulder, then back to my face. Something hardened in her expression. "You're the one who bought me."

"My house did. Yes."

The man with the hatchet moved to help and she wove him off. She swayed slightly. The bite mark on her arm was bleeding. Her leg wound was still raw.

“Why are you here?”

The bond between us was singing like a struck bell.

‘Tell her,’ Orrin said. ‘Tell her. She's right there, TELL HER…’

"You're my mate."

My tone was flat and matter of fact. She flinched. The man lifted his hatchet and inch. The kid behind him made a small sound.

Senna didn’t move at all.

"No," she said.

"It’s true,” I replied, taking a step towards her. She took a step back, cradling her wounded arm across her  stomach. “I felt your wolf awaken. Across a miles and a control room and twelve inches of screen, I felt it." The briars sighed around us. "And you felt something answer. I know you did. I watched your face."

"I felt something." There is no emotion in her tone. "But I've felt a lot of things in the last three days. So you'll forgive me if I don't…"

I stepped forward, cutting her off and closing the distance between us.

She had every reason in the world to put that bow right through my eye. But Orrin was howling and her wolf was right there, under her skin, newborn and reaching. The matebond was pulsing now. She could feel it. I was sure she could feel it.

My hand found the side of her neck. The mark happened the way breathing happens. Orrin rose, my mouth at her throat and shoulder for half a heartbeat, Then I sunk my teeth into her flesh and the bond snapped taut between us.  

She gasped. I felt it in my own lungs.

Then she shoved me, hard, her two hand flat to my chest. I let her.

"You don't get to do that. You don’t get to mark me." She was shaking. From fury or the bond or the blood loss, maybe from all three.

Her hand went to her neck where the mark was already silvering in. "You bought. You threw me onto this island. You’re watching me bleed on your screens. And now you came here? And mark me?”

She was blind fury and rage. I didn’t blame her. Not in the slightest.

"I know."

"You don't know. You don't know anything, you—" Her voice cracked. She bit down on it, furious at the crack in her voice, furious at me. And most of all, furious at the thing under her ribs that was leaning toward me, even though she didn’t want it to. "What do you want?" she finally said.

"To keep you alive," I calmly replied.

"I have fifteen minutes before the feeds come back. There's a med-kit in my pack. Let me look at your leg. I can help you.”

“I can help myself,” she quipped.

“I think you should go.” The man with the hatchet stepped forward, his hands gripped on the hatchet.

She stared at me. The briars creaked.

"The leg," Senna finally said. "Only my leg. And then you go."

"And then I go."

I knelt down in front of her. She let me. The man with the hatchet and the young boy stood close by, watching. I applied the antiseptic and wrapped it up tightly in a clean bandage. I moved fast, knowing that I didn’t have long.

The touch of her skin on my fingertips was electric. Orrin paced. I could feel his craving for her wolf. There was nothing I could do about it. Not now. First thing was first.

And the first thing was…

…I had to get Senna off this island.

Alive.