The Bloodline Seal

Chapter 11: Unbroken Blood Tie

“Did anyone know?”

I stood beside Mara’s hospital bed, watching her sleep.

Raven had finally severed the active tie and stitched the wound closed. Mara was unconscious beneath the medication, her breathing shallow but steady.

The silver light had faded from her skin.

The bloodline seal remained.

My wolf paced beneath my ribs.

*Someone knew.*

Eric leaned against the wall, arms folded across his chest.

“No,” he said. “If Mara had a mate, she wouldn’t have left Silver Hollow so easily.”

“But she didn’t leave easily.” I turned toward him. “She collapsed at the door.”

“I thought you said that was because she had never left the territory. You said it was a combination of fear and illness.”

“It was.”

I looked back at Mara.

Her face appeared calmer beneath the hospital lights, but the bruises along her skin had darkened. She looked too fragile against the white sheets.

I had already told Eric what my wolf had been insisting since the glasshouse.

Mara was our mate.

I had refused to accept it because her wolf was bound. I had convinced myself that the bond was impossible if she couldn’t even access her own instincts.

Now a blood tie had nearly killed her.

None of it made sense.

Eric pushed away from the wall.

“Maybe her former mate was nearby when she left.”

“Then why didn’t he stop her?”

“Maybe he didn’t know she was leaving.”

My eyes shifted toward Raven.

She sat at the far end of the room with a cup of coffee between her hands. She had been staring into it for several minutes, pretending not to hear us.

Raven had never been good at silence.

“Tell me what you know,” I said.

Her shoulders stiffened.

“I don’t know anything.”

“Raven.”

She kept her eyes lowered.

My wolf prowled through the back of my mind.

*She knows.*

I already knew he was right.

“Don’t make me ask again.”

Raven exhaled and set her cup on the table.

“Mara had a mate.”

Eric’s expression sharpened.

I turned fully toward her.

“How long have you known?”

“She told me this morning.”

“And you didn’t think that was important?”

“I didn’t know about the blood tie.”

“You knew she had been mated.”

“I knew she had been rejected.” Raven’s voice grew defensive. “Those aren’t always the same thing.”

“They are when the former mate is still alive.”

Raven flinched.

I kept my voice low, but the pressure in the room changed.

“A blood tie should not remain active unless the other wolf is still alive.”

“I know that now.”

“Did Mara accept the rejection?”

Raven shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“How can you not know?”

“Because she was talking about it and I made the mistake of telling her about my own rejection.” She rubbed her forehead. “I should have asked more questions, but I didn’t think anyone would create a blood tie after rejecting their mate.”

Eric looked toward Mara through the glass partition.

“So the question is not only who her former mate is,” he said. “It’s whether the rejection was ever completed.”

I stared at Mara.

The binding had cut her off from her wolf.

If she had never fully accepted the rejection, the bond might have remained beneath the seal, hidden but alive.

“She shouldn’t have been able to sense him,” I said.

Eric frowned. “Why not?”

“Her wolf was bound. She couldn’t access her instincts or scent a bond.”

“Then how did she know she was mated?”

The question settled over the room.

I had no answer.

Raven looked toward Mara.

“Maybe the binding wasn’t complete.”

“It was strong enough to silence her wolf for years,” I said.

“Maybe it silenced her wolf,” Raven replied, “but not the bond.”

My hands curled at my sides.

That possibility explained too much and not enough.

The blood tie.

The seal’s reaction.

The way Mara had collapsed when she crossed the boundary of Silver Hollow.

The way my wolf had recognized her before I had.

I dragged a hand over my face.

There was too much information to give Mara at once. She had only just begun to trust the idea that she was safe. Telling her that a living former mate was still connected to her could send her straight back into fear.

But she deserved the truth.

When the hospital lights dimmed, I sat beside her bed.

Raven returned regularly to check her stitches and monitor her breathing. Every time, she apologized for keeping Mara’s past from me.

She had not meant to hide it.

She simply hadn’t understood its importance.

That did not make it less dangerous.

Nearly one in the morning passed before Mara finally stirred.

Her lashes fluttered.

Then her eyes opened.

She tried to sit up and immediately winced, one hand moving toward her stomach.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“What are you sorry for?”

Her blue eyes moved around the room before settling on me.

“I caused problems.”

She tried to shift higher against the pillows.

Pain crossed her face.

“Careful,” I said. “Raven stitched the wound. It will hurt for a while.”

Mara blinked back tears.

“Am I in trouble?”

The question cut deeper than it should have.

“No.”

Her eyes searched my face, as if she expected the answer to change.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“The pain came on so quickly.”

“No, Mara.” I kept my voice calm. “I’m talking about your mate.”

Her fingers tightened around the blanket.

“Why didn’t you tell me you had already been mated?”

She dragged her teeth over her bottom lip.

Her eyes closed.

“He rejected me.”

The words were barely audible.

I waited.

“He forced me to accept his rejection,” she continued. “He…”

Her voice broke.

She opened her eyes only halfway, watching me through her lashes.

“I didn’t want him to.”

My chest tightened.

“Tell me what happened.”

Mara swallowed.

“His name was Cal.”

The room seemed to go silent around us.

I had known Cal was her former mate.

I had not known how the bond had ended.

Mara’s hand moved toward the stitches beneath her sweatshirt, but she stopped before touching them.

“He came to the basement on my eighteenth birthday,” she said. “He told me I was beneath him. That I was cursed. Then he rejected me.”

Her breathing became uneven.

“I couldn’t accept it. I didn’t understand what was happening.”

My wolf went still.

Mara looked toward the dark window.

“Cal kept saying the words until I said them back. When I refused, he hit me.”

My hands closed into fists.

“He made me accept the rejection,” she whispered. “Afterward, Rafe strengthened the binding on my wolf.”

The pieces settled into place.

Her silence.

Her inability to heal.

The blood tie buried beneath the seal.

A rejection forced by violence was not the same as a rejection freely accepted.

Mara looked back at me.

“I’m sorry,” she said again. “I didn’t mean to bring this into your pack.”

I leaned closer, keeping my voice steady.

“You didn’t bring anything here.”

“But the tie—”

“Is not your fault.”

She stared at me, uncertain.

“Cal is alive,” I said. “Isn’t he?”

Mara nodded.

The blood tie pulsed beneath the seal.

And somewhere beneath years of silence, her wolf answered mine.