The Captain's Forbidden Mate

Episode 20: THE ANCHOR

COLE

She called me at 2 am, which was how I knew something had gone wrong before she could say anything at all.

I'd already been lying awake staring at the ceiling trying to stop hearing my father's ultimatum running through my head again and again and Noah's warning about a third player that refused to let me sleep properly anyway so the fact that the phone had even rung out in the first place seemed almost like an expected sign.

"I need you" she said her voice fraying at the edges with a kind of fear that was new to me on her, not fear of Damien or even my father's council as much as something deeper and older running beneath her voice "Something is happening to me and Astra says that only you can help and I don't... Cole I don't know what is happening to me."

I was already halfway to her before I could consciously decide to move, my pulse hammering in my ears in exactly the same way it had when I'd been called to the training facility the last time.

I found her in the parking lot of the dorms with Astra looming at her shoulder, looking whiter than usual, as I took Lena in and understood at once what had happened before any explanation could be offered. She smelled different, sharper, more animal than human, and somehow the air around us seemed charged with the scent of wolves, that deep instinctual bond between us as her wolfishness threatened to spill over her human form. Her hands were twitching, golden light flickering at the edges like a candle flame threatening to escape. "Your first shift is coming," I said softly, crossing the space between us with little hesitation and no fear as I took her hands in mine. "Right now. Tonight."

"Astra said you could help, that you could anchor me or something," she said, looking up at me, the gold in her eyes deep and searching as my hands held hers and the bond between us thrummed hungrily at the contact as if trying to satisfy itself with what little contact we'd made so far. "It means what it says," I told her simply, meeting her gaze as I felt the bond react eagerly at the connection. "It means I stay with you and you use the bond to hold onto your human form as long as you can until you decide to release it somewhere safe and you don't hurt yourself doing it."

"What if I can't hold it?" I swallowed hard but said it with more conviction than I felt because the truth was that I'd never anchored anyone through their first shift before only heard stories from the older pack members about the process and what could go wrong if the anchor failed or if either the anchoree or the anchor hesitated at the wrong moment. My father had once told me about some unfortunate cousin of his who had been unable to properly complete her first shift because the anchor she'd chosen hadn't been able to hold firm at a crucial moment and had managed to leave her stuck caught between the two forms for the rest of her days as far as I could tell. I didn't think telling that story to Lena would do anything to help the situation, so I withheld it for now.

Astra pulled up behind us a few minutes later, her headlights cutting through the night as she jogged to my side, where Lena waited tensely, clutching at my hands while another woman approached her with concern. "How much time do we have?" Astra asked as she opened up the first aid kit she'd grabbed up on the way out to the car.

"Minutes" I said, watching the flickering gold in Lena's eyes stabilize as if whatever battle was waging inside her had reached a conclusion of sorts. "Maybe hours."

I got us both out of campus before I let her go, Astra following behind in the car with the first aid kit in hand and an expression that said she was bracing herself for some kind of bloodshed. I pulled up into the trees beyond campus getting both of us away from prying eyes, Astra following my lead though the look on her face hadn't changed as she kept a careful eye out for any other scouts that might come looking. I sat down with Lena in the dirt both of us kneeling on our knees under a blanket of stars far more expansive than anything the city had to offer and I told her to breathe to focus on my voice to listen to me while I held her hands in mine.

For a long agonizing moment, nothing happened at all as she fought against the pull of her own instincts trying to free herself from the restraint I'd placed upon her. Astra hovered nearby her hands covering her mouth as she fought not to interfere even though she had no idea what help she could realistically offer right now, her eyes darting between Lena and me and the distant trees beyond as if expecting Ridgeview to appear at any moment. “You can. I’ve got you.”

I told Lena something reassuring in return something that I hoped conveyed the kind of tone someone who had anchoring experience might sound like if the stories my father told were anything to go by "Just breathe. Just keep your eyes on me. I'm not going anywhere."

Her fingers practically bruised my palms; she was gripping them so hard, golden light consuming the brown of her eyes as she fought against her instincts. "It hurts, Cole, it hurts—" she gasped, her voice thick with pain.

"I know. I know it does. Almost there." I said, lying through my teeth because her hands in my hands were the only reassurance I had at that point that anything would be okay. I needed it just as much as she did in fact because some primal part of me wanted to believe it, wanted it to be true, and I think if I'd had the power to save her just by saying it, I would've said it without hesitation.

Her spine arched, a sound halfway between a growl and a scream tearing from deep in her throat as the hands that had been gripping mine began to transform. Her fingers lengthened, her nails darkened, and the bond between us flared impossibly brighter than before, but I held firm refusing to let go no matter how much her hands changed in my hands.