Page 9

I don't think I'd ever been so nauseous walking up someone's porch, and this one just so happened to belong to my cousin.

Samson, the Alpha of the Saltfang pack. This was the same house I'd fled from so many hours earlier, and there were still remnants of the party everywhere, but the house was quiet.

I felt like barfing, but Scott, of course, looked like he was headed into a business meeting.

He adjusted his clothes after our run through the woods, and while his hair was a little mussed, he looked handsome, confident, and smug, like always.

Was it all an act, I wondered, or was he really just this unbothered by even the craziest of circumstances?

I raised my hand to knock, but Kiera opened the door before I could even make contact with the wood. Her eyes glowed faintly under the porch light as she stepped aside to let us in. "What an odd duo. You two look like hell."

"We feel like it," I muttered, kicking off my muddy boots before walking into the familiar house.

Samson was on the couch, surprisingly still awake despite the late hour.

I hesitated, feeling guilty, wondering if he'd been able to sense my turmoil through the pack bonds, and that is what kept him up.

His gaze snapped up as soon as we entered, instantly zeroing in on how close Scott and I were standing. I instinctively took a step back.

Scott grinned easily. "Evening, Sammy."

The nickname made Samson frown before he looked at me. "What the hell is this about?"

"We need to talk," I said quickly, before I could chicken out. "It's not a small thing, or I wouldn't have bothered you so late."

Kiera had joined us, and she was looking at us curiously. "Something is different here."

"Talk, Nayeli," Samson growled.

I took a deep, shaking breath, already tense. "There was a spell. It wasn't supposed to...I didn't mean to..." I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly. "Look. It backfired. And now Scott and I are magically bonded."

Samson was looking at me like I'd grown a second head. "You what?"

Scott still sounded unbothered, but at least he was a little more serious when he spoke next. "It was an accident, if that makes you feel better. Which it won't."

My cousin's eyes darted to Kiera, who circled Scott and me slowly, trying to figure out what had changed between us. Her fingers twitched at her sides, brushing the air around us, testing the space. I could feel the slight hum of her power reaching out.

Kiera stopped right in front of me, her brows drawn together. "This bond is strong...but wrong, Nayeli. Messy, personal magic. I didn't even know you had an ounce of power...." Then she lowered her voice, and her words were for me and me alone. "Why didn't you tell me? I would have helped you."

A lump formed in my throat. She was right, but we didn't have time to talk about it at the moment. All I could do was mouth 'I'm sorry' to her as Samson shot to his feet, making a beeline for Scott.

"Did he force this on you, Nayeli?"

Scott opened his mouth to defend himself, but I stepped forward before he could say anything. "No, he didn't. I cast the spell. I was experimenting, trying something beyond my skill set, and he walked in at the wrong time. That's all."

Silence stretched as Samson looked at his wife, who shrugged.

Then Samson spoke to me again, but there was a coldness to his voice that had never been directed at me before, and I flinched. "Are you telling me you accidentally soul-bonded with the Alpha of the Shadowbay pack?"

There was no point in lying. "Yes."

Samson still couldn't let go of the possibility that Scott was somehow responsible. He pointed a finger at the other Alpha, so close he was almost touching his chest. "You're telling me you didn't see this as an opportunity to lock one of my wolves onto your leash? To—"

"Oh, for the love of—" I snapped, suddenly annoyed. "No! Scott didn't do anything except walk-in at the worst possible time. He didn't ask for this, and he didn't trick me. This was my fault."

Finally, my cousin's expression cracked as understanding broke through his anger. "Why would you even be messing with a spell like that, Nayeli?"

I couldn't tell him the truth—that it was because I was lonely, because I felt broken, because I wanted to understand myself better and maybe feel like I wasn't just the burdensome cousin and unmated Omega of the Saltfang pack. But I couldn't say any of that, not in front of Scott and Samson both.

"I didn't know the spell could do this," I said quietly, defeated. "I'd hidden my magic for years and thought I understood it better than I did. It was just supposed to help me control my power. I had no idea it could bind two people together like this."

Samson clearly wanted to say more, but Kiera placed a hand on Samson's arm, and he stilled. "She's telling the truth, my love."

Samson sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers before returning to sit heavily on the couch. Kiera sat beside him. "You know what this looks like, right? Everyone is going to see that this could give Scott leverage over our pack."

Scott was reaching the end of his patience, too, and his cool facade was starting to slip. "That's bullshit, but you can believe whatever you want. I didn't come here to play politics. I came here to fix this."

"But how do you know there even is a fix?" Kiera asked. To her credit, she sounded more curious than judgmental. "That bond is strong, if messy. Severing, it might cause real damage to you too, just as if it were a real mate bond."

Scott and I went silent, looking at each other.

Oh well, there was no point in avoiding it.

I cleared my throat and wished that I could move closer to Scott for support without pissing Samson off more.

I might have still been angry with Scott, but he was the only one that could understand the situation I was in. We were in.

"So... about that. Scott is actually my mate. The bond popped up when I presented as an Omega for the first time, but he...ah..."

"I rejected her," he said simply, but I caught an edge of guilt in his voice. "I knew it would be a shit show, me taking the Saltfang Alpha's cousin, and we felt nothing for each other."

I snorted. "Wow. Thanks for that."

Scott raised a brow at me. "Well, we don't. Do we?"

I pressed my lips together, not wanting to give him the satisfaction. "No. We definitely do not."

Samson looked like he was in shock, and Kiera wasn't much better. "He's what ?" Samson yelled. "Nayeli, tell me this is a sick joke!"

Kiera stood up slowly, moving to stand beside me. She wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me against her side. She looked ready to fight Scott, and I couldn't help the small smile that touched my lips. For all that, my cousin was an Alpha jerk sometimes, his mate was a true gem.

"Everyone needs to calm down. So Nayeli and Scott had a rejected mate bond before he was hit with this spell. That explains why it manifested as a bond like this."

Samson glared at Scott. "I don't give a damn what happened before. He needs to get the hell away from my cousin. This is a nightmare."

"I agree," I muttered, still glaring at Scott. He wasn't even bothering to hide his amusement at the situation, and he was watching me with an expression I couldn't quite figure out.

"This isn't Scott's fault," Kiera said gently, rubbing her hand up and down my shoulder. "Nayeli, how long have you had magic, and how much had you used it before this?"

I dragged myself to the couch, sitting as far away from Samson as possible, and explained everything that I could.

I told them how my magic manifested during my first heat as an Omega, and how Scott had rejected me not long after.

I told them how I'd still been grieving my parents, and because of that, I kept everything a secret because I didn't want to be vulnerable in front of anyone, and how my magic had been a small, secret joy for me.

Then I told them the effects of the spell, the pain that it caused me, and the lack of control it fed in Scott.

By the time I was done, Samson was less pissed, and I could sense some understanding from him finally. But he still wasn't happy. "You could have gotten hurt, Nayeli. Hiding something like this makes you seem unstable."

"Maybe I am," I snapped, but I was too tired for there to be any venom behind it. "But I'm not stupid."

"She's right," Scott said, surprising everyone.

He'd been quiet throughout my entire explanation, but now he stepped away from the wall he was leaning on and turned to Samson, his eyes steely.

"You're acting like she's a threat to your pack because she made a mistake, but we both know Nayeli couldn't be malicious even if she tried.

She just explained that she wasn't trying to deceive anyone.

She was just trying to understand herself. "

My heart started to pound, and a warmth spread through me at his words. I looked at him in wonder, thinking how strange it was that he was the one to come to my defense.

"So what, you think I should let this all slide?" Samson asked Scott.

"I think we should all just accept that it happened, and now we have to deal with it. The bond is real. We've confirmed that separation causes physical pain for her and behavioral instability for me. That means there is a single, viable solution."

He looked at me, his brown eyes so dark they seemed bottomless in the dim lighting of Samson's living room, and I could sense that he was about to do something crazy. But Scott seemed calm. Certain.

"I'll marry her."

The room fell into stunned silence.

"I'm sorry, what!?" I said, blinking.