Chapter 195

Eryx was avoiding me.

It had been a week since Veylan had given his blessing, a week since I had known what I wanted, what I needed to do. And for seven days, I had been chasing a ghost.

Every time I approached him, he found a reason to be elsewhere. If I walked toward him on the beach, he suddenly remembered a patrol that needed his attention. If I appeared at the training grounds, he discovered urgent repairs that required his immediate presence. If I tried to corner him in the village, he would spot someone across the way and call out to them with desperate relief, using them as a shield against my approach.

He thought I had rejected him.

I could see it in the set of his shoulders, the downcast eyes, the way he flinched when our gazes accidentally met. He believed that my silence, my hesitation, my failure to immediately respond to his confession meant that I had chosen to turn away. He was embarrassed, mortified by what he had revealed under the Heatroot, and he was protecting himself from further pain by ensuring we never had the chance to speak.

And I was going mad with frustration.

"Stubborn, dense, ridiculous wolf," I muttered to myself on the seventh morning, watching from my window as Eryx spotted me and immediately changed direction, practically running toward the forest. "I have chased you for a week. I am done chasing."

I needed help.

I found my cheetah cubs playing near the house, their young forms tumbling over each other in a game that seemed to involve more chaos than rules. Tavren, the youngest, looked up as I approached, his golden eyes bright with mischief.

"Mama," he said, grinning. "You look angry."

"I am angry," I admitted. "At a certain wolf who keeps running away from me."

Tavren’s ears perked up. "Who?"

"Eryx," I said. "I need to talk to him, but he keeps escaping. I need your help. All three of you."

Kaizen and Zarek gathered close, their eyes wide with curiosity. I knelt, whispering my plan, and their grins grew wider with every word.

"Trickery," Tavren said, his voice full of delight. "I like it."

"For Mama," Kaizen agreed.

"For our family," Zarek added solemnly.

An hour later, I was hiding in the storage room, my heart hammering against my ribs, listening to the sounds of approaching footsteps.

Tavren’s voice came first, high and pitiful, the sound of a child in agony. "Help! Someone help! I fell! I think I broke my leg! It hurts so bad!"

I heard Eryx before I saw him, his feet pounding against the earth, his voice rough with panic. "Tavren? Tavren! Where are you?"

"Here!" Tavren sobbed. "In the storage room! Please, Eryx, it hurts!"

The door burst open, and Eryx rushed inside, his face white with worry, his eyes scanning for the injured cub. He found Tavren sitting on the floor, perfectly healthy, grinning like the little trickster he was.

And then he found me.

"Krys," he breathed, his eyes widening, his face flushing crimson. "I... I thought... Tavren, are you..."

"Fine," Tavren said cheerfully. "But Mama needs to talk to you. And you keep running away. So..." He hopped up, agile as ever, and darted out the door.

Kaizen and Zarek appeared from their hiding spots, and before Eryx could react, before he could flee again, they slammed the door shut. I heard the bar slide into place, heard my sons’ giggles fade as they ran away, leaving us trapped together.

"Let me out," Eryx said, his voice tight, his back pressed against the wall as far from me as possible. "Please, Krys. Let me out."

"No," I said, stepping closer. "Not until you listen. Not until you stop running."

"I can’t," he said, his voice breaking. "I can’t face you. Not after... not after what I said. What I did. Please, Krys. I’m begging you. Let me go."

"Why?" I demanded my own frustration breaking through. "Why do you keep running? Why won’t you look at me?"

"Because I’m embarrassed!" he shouted, the words tearing from his throat, his face burning red, his eyes finally meeting mine, swimming with tears. "Because I threw myself at you like some desperate, pathetic animal! Because I told you things you didn’t want to hear, because I made you feel obligated, because I ruined everything! I can’t face you because every time I see you, I see my own humiliation, my own stupidity, my own..."

He broke off, his hands covering his face, his shoulders shaking. "I love you," he whispered, the words muffled, broken. "And you don’t love me back. And I can’t bear it. I can’t bear to see pity in your eyes. Or worse, indifference. So I run. Because it’s the only way I can survive."

I stared at him, my heart breaking, my anger evaporating into something tender and fierce and overwhelming.

"You absolute idiot," I said, my voice soft, trembling with emotion.

He flinched, his ears flattening against his skull.

"If you hadn’t run away," I continued, stepping closer, close enough to touch him, close enough to feel the heat radiating from his skin. "If you had stayed, if you had let me speak, we could have had this conversation a week ago. We could have saved ourselves seven days of misery."

Eryx’s hands dropped from his face, his eyes finding mine, confused, hopeful, terrified. "What?"

"I talked to Veylan," I said, my voice steady now, sure. "I talked to all of them. Leon, Ravin, Soryn, Aureon, Caelion. I told them everything. What you said. How you felt. What I felt."

His breath hitched, his ears perking up, swiveling toward me. "What... what did they say?"

"They said yes," I whispered, my hand reaching out, my fingers brushing his cheek, feeling the heat of his blush, the roughness of stubble, the trembling of his jaw. "They said they had been waiting. That they thought it was only a matter of time. That you were already family, already one of us, and they welcomed you. All of them. Even Veylan. Especially Veylan."

Eryx’s eyes widened, tears spilling over, tracking down his cheeks. "They... they said that?"

"They said that" I confirmed, my own eyes wet, my smile trembling. "And I don’t know when. I don’t know how it happened. But before I knew it, you were already in my heart. Taking root there as if you had belonged there all along. I have feelings for you, Eryx. Real feelings. Not obligation. Not gratitude. But love. And I would love it, more than anything, if you would accept me as your mate."

He stared at me, his mouth open, his chest heaving, tears streaming freely down his face. For a moment, he was frozen, unable to move, unable to speak.

Then he moved.

He pulled me into his arms with a strength that surprised me, crushing me against his chest, his face buried in my hair, his whole body shaking with sobs.

"Yes," he choked out, his voice raw, broken, triumphant. "Yes, Krys. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for accepting me. Thank you for chasing me. Thank you for not giving up on me."

I wrapped my arms around him, holding him tight, feeling his heart hammer against mine, feeling the rightness of this, the completion of it.

And then he pulled back, just enough to look at me, his eyes burning with love and desire and something fierce and primal. He took my wrist in his hands, his grip gentle but firm, and brought it to his lips.

"May I?" he whispered, his breath hot against my skin.

"Yes," I breathed.

He bit down.

The pain was instant, sharp, and shocking. Then it was gone, replaced by warmth, by connection, by a bond snapping into place with the force of a thunderclap. Blue light flared around us, wrapping us together, binding us, and I felt him, in all sense of him; his love, his devotion, his absolute certainty that I was his and he was mine.

The light combined, forming a collar of blue energy around his throat, marking him as my mate, my subordinate, my beloved. And around my wrist, a matching band of blue, marking me as his, binding him to me, completing what had begun when we caught feelings for eachother.

We stood there, trembling, connected, whole.

And then the door burst open.

Leon, Ravin, Veylan, Soryn, Aureon, and Caelion stood there, grinning like fools, clapping and cheering and welcoming their brother into the fold.

"Finally," Leon said, his voice rough with emotion.

"About time," Ravin agreed, his golden eyes bright.

"I told you," Veylan said, his smile gentle, his hand on his brother’s shoulder. "I told you, you will finally find someone."

Eryx laughed, the sound wet and happy and free, and he pulled me close again, his face buried in my neck, his tears damp against my skin.

In their minds and hearts, I knew, he had already been part of this family. He had been one of us since the moment he chose to love us, to protect us, to stand by us. The bond was simply a formality, a recognition of what had always been true.

He was home.

We were complete.

And we were, finally, finally whole.