Chapter 219: The Door

Vivian’s POV

"Oh my goddess, Hannah, what is it now? The ninety-what?" I tilted my head toward Zahliver, who did not even glance up from the massive sea of paperwork spread neatly across his desk.

"Ninety-sixth," he replied calmly, flipping a page over like he had not just admitted to counting my friend’s ridiculous phone calls.

"For the ninety-sixth time," I groaned into the mobile phone, "I am totally fine. Just like I was yesterday. And the day before that. And the day before that... all the way back to when I actually was not fine. Girl, I adore you, but if you ask me how I am feeling one more time, I am going to start letting Mark know how you really feel about his beloved sci-fi drama."

I could practically hear her dramatic eye-roll right through the line before she huffed loudly into the microphone.

"Fine, fine. But if you faint again, do not expect me to show up at your front door like some worried nursemaid. I warned you," she said, before suddenly yelling away from the phone, "Johnson! Back away with that thing! MARK! HE HAS GOT THE BACK SCRATCHER AGAIN! Dammit, I said I am not itchy anymore! Viv, I have to call you back."

Somewhere on the other end of the connection, heavy feet thudded across a hardwood floor, and someone let out the kind of high-pitched scream that made me snort with laughter.

"Tell Johnson I said hi," I managed to get out between chuckles.

"They are... definitely unique," Zahliver muttered, finally starting to stack the loose papers together, signaling that he was almost done working for the day.

"Yeah," I said fondly. "Hannah is an absolute gem, Mark is the most patient man I have ever met, and Johnson... well, he is basically walking chaos in a hoodie."

Zahliver smirked slightly at that. "And then there is his mate what is her name again, Mila? Still pretending he does not exist just because he never returned her favorite teddy bear from high school."

I blinked in surprise and sat up straighter against the couch cushions.

"Wait, that is the actual reason they are not together? Because of a silly teddy bear?"

He gave a small nod, looking completely unbothered by the absurdity of it. "Apparently, their pre-mate bond dynamic involved years of stealing random items from each other. They decided they would not formally acknowledge the mating bond until every single stolen item was returned. It is... a rather strange sort of tradition."

I squinted my eyes at him. "And how on earth do you know this?"

He finally met my gaze, one dark brow arched playfully. "Vivian. What is there that I do not know?"

I rolled my eyes playfully, even though I could not help the warm smile tugging at the corners of my lips.

Ever since our last long talk that heart-to-heart talk Zahliver had hardly let me out of his sight. He took me with him nearly everywhere he went around the territory. When he truly could not bring me along, he left behind trusted guards with strict instructions and made me swear on my life to call him immediately if anything happened. He also maintained a very strict no-shifting order. He was still being thoroughly overprotective, but he had mellowed out just a little bit. I supposed we were taking baby steps.

It had been a full week since I woke up, and we were finally finding our comfortable rhythm again. The days possessed a strange, quiet softness to them spent working in his office, sharing idle conversation, and catching those tender looks we passed each other when we thought the other person was not watching.

I was still curled up comfortably on the couch with one leg tucked under me, silently regretting the awkward position, when a sudden knock echoed loudly through the room. Zahliver stood up immediately, tugging me gently to my feet before lacing his strong fingers with mine as we headed toward the front door.

When he pulled the heavy door open, Algebra was standing on the other side.

Seeing his familiar face made a sudden wave of warmth rise in my chest. He had been one of the very first people I saw when I finally woke up after my body collapsed in the forest. I had been unconscious for three whole days, and he had shown up with a bouquet of flowers and a tiny plush toy shaped like a complicated math figure. He had joked that he brought it so I could "hug the thing that almost killed me." Honestly, his quirky humor had made me laugh harder than I ever expected in a hospital room.

Pero the smile I had been wearing faded fast when I saw the grim look etched onto his face.

Zahliver’s posture straightened instantly beside me, every single muscle in his body going tense as stone. "What is it?"

"We found it," Algebra said without any ceremony. "The door. It is now or never, man. The men are ready to move out. It is your call, Alpha."

I did not even need to ask what door he meant.

It was the door the one that opened the hidden way up to the heavens. The sacred place where it all began. The very place where the gods had broken him, cursed him, and changed him into the powerful, dangerous being I stood beside every single day. The place where he had lost his beloved brother.

Zahliver’s grip tightened painfully around my hand, and I could already feel the familiar dark storm rising fiercely behind his blue eyes.

And somehow, deep down inside, I knew that whatever happened next would change everything between us forever.

I was not going to pretend that I was not terrified.

I was terrified of what Zahliver was about to do. I was terrified of what might happen once he left our safe walls. But more than that, I knew this was not something I could or should try to stop.

This was not about me. It was something he needed to do for his own soul... for us. No matter how much I wanted to cling tightly to his jacket and beg him to stay behind, I could not hold him back from his destiny. Even through my deep fear, I trusted him with everything I had.