Chapter 45: Chapter 45: Ultimate Mate Bond
Her eyes widen at the realization as she meets his gaze again. He smiles at her through the pain, and the intensity in those silver eyes makes her shiver without warning.
She looks away quickly, staring down at her hands again in disbelief.
Because how did Adrian manage to not only fight in her place through their bond, but also take her pain?!?
---
Nyra is still staring at Adrian as the realization keeps replaying over and over in her head.
There is no other explanation--it was Adrian. The blood dripping from his nose and the stiffness in his hands prove it.
He flashes an "I’m proud of you" look, and somehow that hits her harder than all the praises from the omegas around her.
Their eyes stay locked for a moment longer, and something passes between them, hot and burning.
Not anger. Not the usual tension or possession between them.
This one is soft, and it makes her heart pound with something she refuses to name.
Her legs are already moving toward him when someone unconsciously blocks her path.
"Nyra!" A familiar pair of arms wrap around her, nearly knocking the air out of her lungs.
"Are you okay?" Julian asks frantically. "I heard your partner was Thomas. Goddess, I was so worried when I heard. Are you hurt? Your nose is bleeding, did you break anything?"
Nyra blinks, startled by the sudden hug. "Julian, I’m fine," she says, hugging him back loosely. "I’m okay."
"Fine?" His eyes scan over her worriedly. "You were literally fighting Thomas."
"I’m fine," she repeats, softer this time.
How is she supposed to say that the boy she hates unexpectedly took every bit of pain for her?
Her gaze glances back up to the bleachers, expecting to see him glaring at them with his usual possessiveness.
But he is gone.
Her smile fades slightly. Where did he go?
---
After the match ends, Nyra spends several minutes answering questions from her friends. Leah, Naya, and Lena are all talking at once, still shocked that she managed to win.
"You knocked him out," Lena says with wide eyes.
"He was three times stronger than you," Naya says in awe. "How did you do that?!"
"And it looked like you knew exactly what you were doing," Leah adds, then turns to her. "Since when can you fight like that?"
Nyra doesn’t answer because she’s not even listening. Her mind is still on Adrian. She has a lot of questions--but more than that, with all those hits she took, he’s bound to be in so much pain.
Unable to bear it any longer, she cuts her friends off. "I’ll be right back."
Before anyone can ask where she’s going, she slips away, already heading toward the school’s combat training room.
The training room is half empty when she gets there. There’s a small group at the back.Before she can even reach them, the doors slam open. Several senior team members rush past with a stretcher.
Her heart drops. Because lying on it is Adrian.
His face is pale, his eyes squeezed shut, and his breathing uneven. He looks like he’s barely holding himself together.
The bond is closed, so she can’t even tell how much pain he’s in.
His eyes open slightly, like he can feel her watching--they meet hers. And even now, even in pain, the first thing he does is try to smile.
"Idiot," she whispers under her breath.
---
The infirmary doors close behind him, but Nyra doesn’t leave immediately. She stands there quietly, staring at the door, watching his chest rise and fall rapidly.
The pain medication the pack nurse had given him made him fall asleep ten minutes ago.
"He is breathing like his nose and ribs are cracked, but we can’t find any physical injuries. We might need to keep him here until evening for observation." The doctor looks down at his notes, confused.
"Also, for some reason... the pain doesn’t seem to be fading as fast as it should for a werewolf."
That’s exactly what the doctor had told them ten minutes ago.
And Nyra has a theory about why the pain is healing slower. There are no physical injuries for the wolf to find, so the process is slower, even for a powerful wolf like him.
He knew all of this, and he still took the pain for her.
Nyra looks at him again, at the way his chest seems to be rising too quickly. His hand is still stiffly resting on the bed despite being unconscious.
I wish I could take some of the pain back, she sighs to herself.
But then she has a crazy thought slips in...
If Adrian could send his strength through their bond, could she do it too? But how is that even possible? And if it were, how did Adrian know it would work?!
Does he know something about them that she doesn’t?
Making sure they’re alone, she closes the door behind her and pulls a chair beside him.
Then she closes her eyes, trying to reach for the quiet pulse in the back of her head. Their mating bond. She tries to reach into it and push a bit of her strength through it so he can heal faster.
At first, nothing happens.
Of course things like this don’t work. It’s unheard of, even among decades-long mates--let alone an unwanted mate bond.
But something in her tells her to try again. This time, not just with the bond, but with the good feelings.
She focuses all her energy, trying to channel her strength through it and into his unconscious body.
A small piece of warmth. A small piece of herself.
For one second, nothing happens, and she almost thinks she imagined everything.
But then the bond actually responds.
Small, barely there, but she feels his wolf accepting her--her strength growing weaker as she pushes some of it to him.
Her eyes snap open in shock. It actually worked!
But that would mean... That everything they knew about their bond was wrong.
It might not be an ordinary bond at all.
And somehow, Nyra has a feeling the Goddess never intended for them to be ordinary mates.
