And maybe…to the version of myself I hadn’t been since I left here.
The trees thinned as we reached the druid’s tent. The druid waited outside. They looked exactly the same as last time—eyes hiding secrets, skin like parchment, presence like the whisper of fate.
“You came,” they said, not a question, just a truth acknowledged.
I didn’t respond. I didn’t trust myself to speak. Rowen stepped past me, and I watched her—watched the way hershoulders squared, how her chin lifted like she was daring fate to test her.
“I’m ready,” she said.
She wasn’t. Not really. Neither of us were. But she meant it.
The druid studied her, and I saw the faintest shift in that weathered expression. Not approval. Not concern. Just…inevitability.
“You’re not,” the druid said. “But you’re willing. That’s enough.”
They pulled a vial from their robe. The liquid inside shimmered like fire and frost at once—contradictory, confusing, beautiful. Like everything I wanted and nothing I deserved.
“This will bring on your heat before it’s due. It will call the bond to completion. Once taken, it cannot be undone.”
“I know.” Her voice didn’t shake as she spoke, though I felt the tremor in her body as she stood beside me.
The druid looked between us both, their fingers curled tighter around the vial. “You’ll lose control. You both will. And the bond, once sealed, cannot be softened later. It will burn through everything that isn’t real.”
“I know that too,” Rowen whispered. “Iamready.”
I stepped closer to Rowen without thinking. I didn’t want that vial touching her hand. Didn’t want magic we didn’t control making this choice for us.
“You don’t have to take it,” I murmured. “Not today.”
“I don’t want to wait,” she said. Her voice was steel, wrapped in something softer.
Our eyes met. Fuck, I was going to lose it if she said one more thing that made me love her harder than I already did.
The druid gave her the vial. Their fingers brushed Rowen’s skin. I didn’t like it.
“Take it somewhere private,” they said. “Let the earth witness your choice, not me.”
I guided Rowen away, hand at her back, my body humming with too much power, too much need. I wanted to shift. I wanted to carry her. I wanted to break something just to feel the ground shake like I was shaking inside.
We didn’t speak as we walked. The bond stretched between us—tight, alive, waiting. She carried the vial at her hip like it was nothing.
But I knew it wasn’t nothing, it was everything. We weren’t walking toward a decision. We were walking toward surrender. Surrender to each other.
And Goddess help me—I didn’t want to stop.
We walked in silence again, but it wasn’t the same. The weight between us had shifted. We were no longer moving toward a choice. We were alreadyinit.
“I think we patrol today, move amongst our pack, let them see us, and I’ll…” She blushed. “I’ll take it tonight.”
I glanced at her. “You think it will work that fast?”
Rowen didn’t meet my eyes, just kept her gaze steady on the path in front of her. “I think they were waiting for us and that what’s in this vial is probably the strongest dose they could make. It’ll happen fast.”
“We’re really doing this.”
Rowen stopped. “You have doubts?”
I shook my head. “No.”
