Kael had never feared silence until now.
It stretched like a chasm between them, wide and impossible to cross. Ariana no longer reached for him at night, no longer laughed at his rare, wry humor, no longer leaned into him when the bond pulled taut.
The bond still pulsed—hungry, aching, demanding—but she resisted it, holding herself apart with an iron will that both awed and terrified him.
Kael felt it every hour, every minute, every second. The slow, agonizing drift of his mate pulling further away.
And the further she drifted, the more his instincts screamed.
Keep her close. Don’t let her go. Chain her if you must.
---
He watched her now from across the training yard.
The elders circled her as she summoned fire, her palms glowing with orange flame that licked higher with each flic
