CHAPTER 15: STRACTEGY AND STRAIN
730 Words
Zane’s pov
The decision to cut the Mate Bond feed was the hardest tactical move I had ever made, and watching Zakk suffer for it was a torment I wouldn't wish on anyone. He didn't understand the long game; he only understood the immediate, primal demand of the pack. I, however, had to protect the secret, the family, and Andre’s transition.
I sat in the sterile silence of the private jet, watching the neon sprawl of Seattle shrink beneath us as we finally headed home. The last seven days had been the definition of strain. The Mate Bond withdrawal was a quiet, insidious ache for me—a dull, throbbing emptiness where Andre’s energy should have been. For Zakk, it was a constant, restless fever.
I knew the pain was worth it. Our initial contact had confused Andre. She had run from our presence. Now, she was running from our absence. We had inverted the struggle.
I leaned back, finally allowing myself to process the sheer weight of this responsibility. I was the one who had to hold the line, not just against Zakk's impatience, but against my own possessiveness. I had claimed her first. I knew the taste of her, the feel of her surrender. The memory was a constant, sharp temptation. But the Mate Bond was absolute: it required three.
If I had returned alone, I would have ruined everything.
"We should have warned her," I said into the quiet of the cabin, the guilt finally surfacing. "She thought we were running from her."
Zakk, who was staring out the window, his jaw clenched, scoffed. "If we had warned her, she would have fortified her walls. We needed her to hit rock bottom. We needed her wolf to feel desperate enough to override her human shame." He paused, turning to me, his eyes gleaming with a manic eagerness. "She is starving, Zane. I can feel the pain in the bond, even across this distance."
"And when we get back, we will go slowly," I countered, laying down the final rule. "No forcing the issue. We let her come to us."
Zakk laughed, a rough, dry sound devoid of humor. "Slowly? We've been gone for a week. She will be waiting at our door, brother. And if she’s not, I’ll be waiting at hers. I can’t maintain this control anymore. The bond is demanding the completion of the triad, and you know as well as I do that denial is no longer an option."
He was right. The partial bond with Andre was destabilizing all three of us. My own calm was stretched thin. The need to feel Andre’s presence, to ground her wolf and complete the symmetry of our pack, was overwhelming.
I pulled out my phone and checked the time. Five hours until we landed. Six hours until we were back in the house, before dawn.
My mind started planning the re-entry. We couldn't just swagger in, smelling like desperate wolves. We had to maintain the secret for Henry and Sarah. We had to be the tired but polite stepsons returning from a grueling business trip.
But I knew the reality. The second we walked into that hallway, the entire strategic game would be over. Andre’s starved wolf would recognize the surge of energy, and her shame would be lost to necessity.
I looked at Zakk—restless, impatient, and radiating a controlled, predatory desire. He was the force; I was the finesse. And she needed both.
I closed my eyes and allowed myself the briefest fantasy: the scent of her fear replaced by the scent of her relief, her shaking body finally relaxing as the two of us surrounded her, completing the circuit of the bond.
"Prepare yourself, Zakk," I said, my voice low and serious. "The secret is about to get much more complicated. When we land, we are partners. We protect the pack, and we complete the bond—together."
The private jet descended toward the city lights below. I gripped the armrest, feeling the distant, faint hum of the Mate Bond finally starting to return, stronger and more insistent with every mile we traveled toward home. The agony of the absent mate was about to give way to the overwhelming, dual power of the present one.
- Writer
