“What if he doesn’t come back?” The very thought brought fresh agony to Zio’s heart. He rubbed his chest and repeated the question out loud with a scratchy whisper that hurt his ears.
Shannon wrapped an arm around him. “He’ll come back—he’s bound to the pack, and now he’s bound to you too, even if you don’t fulfil the bond.”
“I don’t know what any of that means.”
“Neither do I, at least not when it comes to shifters from different clans. We have to wait for Varian; he’ll know what to do.”
Zio wasn’t so sure. In all the years he’d served his alpha, Varian had rarely talked about bonds, even his own with Tomas, and Zio had never sought out friendships in the wider pack, preferring to stick close to his squad brothers and sisters.It was never up to other people to tell you. Varian taught you many times that knowledge was the greatest power, but you never bothered to learn.
It was true. The only thing Zio knew about mated pairs was that they never served in the same units, in his own pack and beyond. “I always thought if I triggered a bond, it would be with Emma, and that it would be easy. She’d leave the combat units, and she’d be safe.”
“I thought you never slept with Emma.”
“I didn’t. But I was never sure that wouldn’t change.”
Shannon sighed. “Maybe it would be easier to bond with your best friend, but the supernatural world doesn’t work like that. Bonds are... unique things. Magic. Unpredictable. You can’t control them, no matter how bad you want to.”
“Do you wish this had happened with you and your human friend?”
“No. I would never wish this life on someone I love.”
Love.Zio craved to know more, but an approaching vehicle interrupted them. He scrambled to his feet. The guards had shouted no warning, so it had to be Varian.
Zio’s stomach turned over, nervous for reasons he didn’t understand.
Shannon nudged him. “Chill. It’ll be fine. It’s not like you’ve done anything wrong. You’re as blindsided by this as the rest of us.”
Zio shook his head. “I’m not. I should’ve known.”
“How? It’s not like you’ve been— Oh fuck, seriously?” Realisation dawned on Shannon’s face, but there was no time to fend off his inevitable questions.
Varian had arrived.
* * *
Varian stood by the refreshed fire, flames dancing in his eyes. He’d listened to Zio’s explanation from start to finish, sought out others to hear theirs, and checked on Bomber before he’d returned to Zio’s side. “I knew there was... something,” he said eventually. “I didn’t believe you would keep something from me, more that you didn’t know what you were hiding. Now it makes sense.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You don’t have to convince me, Zio. I believe Devan might’ve, though, or at least suspected such a thing was possible. He has seen far more of the world than you, and maybe more than I when it comes to such things.”
“He never said.”
“Perhaps he thought he could control it.”
“Control it?”
Varian sighed. “Yes. It’s a big ask, but Devan is an extraordinary shifter. Perhaps he believed such a thing was possible if the bond didn’t trigger when you were intimate.”
“I couldn’t stop,” Zio whispered. “Every time we were together, I knew it was wrong, but... I-I just couldn’t stop.”
“What made you think it was wrong? The unfamiliar doesn’t have to be so forever.”
Zio jerked his head up. “Of course it’s wrong. He’s not a wolf.”
“So? Devan’s own creator is bonded to a shifter from a vampire coven. Nothing in this extraordinary world of ours is wrong unless it is born of hate and greed.”
“But—”