Page 36

36

CALLUM

K endall’s side of the bed is cold when I wake up.

Not recently-left cold. Gone-for-hours cold.

I sit up, heart already racing, scanning the shadows for a note, a scent trail, anything . But there’s nothing. No message. No boot prints. Just the ghost of her warmth on the sheets and the echo of her laugh somewhere in my skull.

I don't panic. Not yet.

She wouldn’t run from me. Not fully. But she’s scared—of this, of us , of herself. I saw it last night in the way her hands shook when she reached for me, like she was scared touching me would break her into something else.

Maybe it already has.

I throw on my gear, sling my jacket over one shoulder, and slip out into the cool morning air. If I know Kendall—and I do —she’s not lost. She’s looking for something. And I’d bet my fangs she went straight to her father or Adora. Which means I’ve got my own work to do before this blows up.

Elias is already at the drop spot when I get there—an old shipping container rigged up with a camo net and warded six ways to hell. He’s perched on a crate, chewing sunflower seeds and tossing the shells into a rusted oil drum like he’s not waiting for me to drop the damn apocalypse in his lap.

“Morning, sunshine,” he says. “You look like shit.”

“Didn’t sleep.”

“Hot night with your mate?”

I give him a look that says: Don't.

He sobers instantly. “Alright. Let’s have it.”

I shut the container door and lean against the wall. “It’s about the sisters.”

“Kendall and Adora?”

I’ve briefed him quickly about Adora and her connection to not only Kendall, but me. But that’s only been between quick meetings while all hell's breaking loose.

I nod. “They’re changing fast. And it’s not just Bolvi or latent shifter energy. Something else is waking up in their blood, and it’s not subtle anymore.”

Elias frowns. “How bad?”

“Bad enough I think if PEACE gets even a whiff of what they are, they'll disappear them in a cell. Or worse.”

“What about Typhon’s Brood?”

“They’d try to claim them. Weaponize them. Or destroy them if they can’t.”

Elias spits another shell. “And we’re what, stuck in the middle? Babysitters?”

“We’re protectors,” I say. “Or we’re supposed to be.”

He gives me a long look. “You’re in love with her.”

“She’s my fated, Elias.” But I know it’s more than that. Even if she wasn’t, there’s something about Kendall that would still pull me to her.

Elias gives me a skeptical look, knowing already what I’m not saying. “I’ll keep your secret,” he says. “But Callum—this ends messy if they burn too bright too fast. You know that, right?”

“I know.”

“Then let’s try to slow the burn.”

I find Adora near the industrial ruins by the north viaduct, where the Veil used to shimmer hardest before it fell. She’s crouched on a broken slab of concrete, staring out across the city like she’s trying to burn it down with her eyes.

Her aura’s a wildfire. Not literal, but close enough. The heat rolling off her is thick, nearly visible. Her power’s leaking out around the edges like her body’s just barely holding it all in.

“You came,” she says without looking at me.

“You didn’t make it hard.”

“I wasn’t hiding.”

“No,” I agree. “You wanted to be found.”

She finally looks up. “Don’t psychoanalyze me, Wulfson. I get enough of that from my sister.”

I walk closer but keep a good few feet between us. Not because I’m scared of her. But because she wants me to be.

“I’m not here to push you into anything,” I say. “You don’t want a pack? Fine. You don’t want to train under me? Fine. I’m not here to crown myself your Alpha. I just want to make sure you survive.”

She snorts. “Survive? You think I’m weak?”

“No. I think you’re angry.”

“You’d be angry too,” she says. “If you found out the man who raised you wasn’t your father, and the man who is didn’t give a shit whether you existed.”

I nod slowly. “Yeah. I would.”

Her jaw tightens, like she didn’t expect me to agree.

“I’m not trying to control your fate,” I say. “But you need to understand what you are. What you’re becoming. This power? It’s not meant to run wild.”

She stands, her eyes flickering gold. “Why? Because it scares you ?”

“No. Because if it scares the wrong people, they’ll come for you.”

“I’ll kill them.”

“Then you prove them right.”

She steps back like my words physically landed.

I take a chance and move in closer. “You’re not alone in this. Whatever you are—Wulfson blood or something else entirely—you’re not wrong for feeling too big in your skin. But it doesn’t mean you get to burn the whole damn forest just because it itches.”

Her eyes shimmer. “I’m not Kendall.”

“I know.”

“I’m stronger than you.”

I nod. “Maybe.”

“And I don’t need you.”

“Probably not.”

Her lip curls. “Then why are you still here?”

“Because I care.”

Silence stretches between us.

She laughs, sharp and bitter. “You sound like a fucking dad.”

“I sound like a brother.”

She spins on her heel. “Go find your little bondmate, Callum. I’m done playing soldier in your story.”

“You go rogue, Adora, and they’ll label you a threat. They’ll hunt you.”

“I hope they do,” she mutters. “I’m tired of hiding.”

She disappears into the trees before I can stop her.

While I’m left staring at the smoke trail of her wake.