Page 56 of Before the Bond
Donovan didn't say anything for a moment. He crossed his arms.
We heard footsteps. In the distance, we could hear Jake and Olivia. Olivia was laughing, no doubt because of a quip Jake made.
I watched my brother across from me sigh.
"I've been watching her," Donovan murmured. "With Jake."
A beat.
"She didn’t have the full picture,” Donovan said. “Less than half, even. But she took it, and she did more with it than she should have been able to do, and she didn't run when the rest came out."
He looked at me directly. "She's been watching you. You know that, right?"
I tried not to show how much that statement affected me.
Donovan pressed further. "The estate's different since she came here,” he said. “I don't know what you want me to say about that. But it is."
"The truth about what we are didn't cost her anything," I said. "This will."
"Which is why she needs to hear it from someone who's going to still be standing there after it does." He uncrossed his arms. "Elias doesn't care what it costs her. He cares what it costs you. She deserves to know the difference exists."
"Tell her. Before he does." He stopped but didn't turn. "You can choose how many people get hurt by this. You can't choose whether anyone does."
“I promise I know what I’m doing.”
Donovan drew closer. “But I’m warning you, Caleb.”
He jerked his head toward the trees.
“Elias will be back,” he said. “He’s been building toward something — we both know that. And when the Voss pack decides they’ve gathered enough, they will use what they know.”
He turned for the door, then paused.
"Including what she doesn't."
Chapter 12
Olivia
It’d been a few days since Caleb saved me from stray wolves on the road and told me everything. Since then, the Ashwood estate has felt different. Everyone seemed lighter.
Now that I knew everything, it was easier for others to move around me. Maureen didn't have to choose her words before she spoke anymore. Tomas nodded at me on his perimeter walks like I was supposed to be there, because now I belonged.
The only problem now was Jake’s shift. Caleb believed it would happen tonight.
“It happens on a full moon,” Caleb explained, two days ago. “Given Jake’s progression, it will only be a matter of days.”
Leading up to the event, Caleb and I discussed the emergency preparations Jake would need. Things that would stabilize his vitals if they became critical in his human form, space during the transformation, we covered everything.
It was now the day of the shift.
From the window, I could see people preparing a medical tent outside.
“I’m not about to let a wolf thrash our furniture,” Maureen said, as she cleaned up in the kitchen. “It’s for your safety.”
Just a moment later, Donovan cornered me before I even finished my coffee. He leaned over the counter.
He looked down at what I was reading: Jake’s charts and a few books Caleb had given me from the more clandestine book collection.
