She looked at me with dark, haunted eyes. "What happens when Kaden finds his true mate?"
I opened and closed my mouth, her words sucking all the air from my lungs. I'd been so focused on breaking the mate bond with Jordan that I'd just assumed that when it happened, Kaden and I would be mates. But what if we weren't? What if we met with other packs, and Kaden found his true alpha female among one of them? What if this was all a temporary fling, a dream that we'd one day wake up from?
Eileen stood up and moved close, resting her hand on my shoulder. Her eyes were kind, sympathetic, but also wary. "I just don't want Kaden to get hurt again."
"That's the last thing I want too," I said, my voice trembling slightly.
She nodded and released me. "There's no easy solution to this problem, and no answer clearly written in the stars, so all I will say is...be careful with your heart. And Kaden's."
She slipped off through the trees like some kind of midnight sprite before I could form a good reply. I looked up at the waning moon, begging the goddess Selene for a sign that Kaden and I were meant to be together, but she was silent. Eventually, I gave up and went back to my tent, where I wrapped my arms around Kaden, terrified to ever let him go.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
We returned to the Ophiuchus camp and counted down the days until the solar eclipse. More packs had finally responded to Wesley and said they might attend, giving us a small glimmer of hope, and I couldn't wait to see my brother again.
We spent the first official day of fall preparing to leave the next morning for Oregon, another long drive that would take days. Jack had already yelled that he was going to drive the Aston Martin the entire way until Harper reminded him he'd have to trade off and graciously volunteered herself for a turn. After a hard look from her brother, she grudgingly added Dane to the list of drivers too.
Flying would be faster, but it carried a higher risk of the Leos finding out what we were doing, especially since we had to cross the border into the US. Kaden had a plan though—he and a few others had passports for the border crossing, and the rest of us would pretend to be dogs. Who would believe someone would drive around with wolves in their backseat?
As the sun set and dusk crept across the sky, I set out looking for Kaden, since I hadn't seen him in a few hours. I had no mate bond to guide me to him, but I raised my nose and followed my senses until I found him in the forest, chopping wood. With nothing on but a ripped pair of jeans. Yes, please.
I leaned against a tree and pulled my camera out to capture the way the muscles in Kaden's chest moved as he brought the axe down on the piece of wood. Not to mention those strong arms, which were almost as thick as the wood he was cutting, and his big hands, which handled the axe like it weighed nothing. His masculine power made me all hot and bothered, and I wanted to tear off those jeans and climb him like a tree. Who knew I was so into sexy lumberjacks?
"Are you going to stare at me all day or did you have something to say, little wolf?" Kaden asked, before bringing down the axe again on another piece of wood.
I snapped another photo. "You need to come pack for tomorrow. Someone else can do this."
"I want to make sure the pack has enough wood while we're gone. It's getting colder and I think it might rain soon."
I sighed, but it was just like Kaden to decide he had to do this right now, and no one else. Other alphas would have delegated the task, but not Kaden, no. At least it gave me a nice view.
He finished up the next piece of wood and then stopped, turning toward me and spotting the camera. "What are you doing with that?"
"Documenting this moment." I clutched the camera to my chest. "I bet I could sell these for big money."
He rolled his eyes, set the axe down, and wiped the sweat off his forehead. "All right, I'm done."
"Too bad. I was enjoying the show."
"I can give you something better." He walked over and caught me around the waist and pulled me against him. I stiffened a little, unable to forget what Eileen had said the other day.
Kaden noticed and searched my eyes with a frown. "You've been distant ever since we returned from visiting the Sagittarius pack. Is something wrong?"
"I'm just stressed about the solar eclipse," I said, looking down.
"Hmm, I think there's more to it than that." He tilted my chin up so I had to look at him. "Spit it out, or I'll pin you down and drag it out of you."
I cracked a wry grin. "Is that supposed to be a threat?"
"Ayla..." His voice held a warning in it. "Tell me."
"Fine, it was something Eileen said the other night."
Kaden tensed, his next words a growl. "She spoke to you? What did she say?"
"Nothing bad. Not in the way you're thinking, anyway." I packed my camera in its bag, mostly to avoid looking at Kaden as I got the next words out. "She made me wonder what would happen if you ever found your real mate. Like she did when you were together."
"I see." He took my hand in his and began leading me forward. "Come. Walk with me."
As the sky darkened, he guided me through the forest, until we reached a part of the lake I hadn't visited before, nestled between thick trees. He moved to stand on the edge of the water and turned toward me.
"Do you remember when we first met at the waterfall?" Kaden asked.
"Of course. Your wolf almost tore my throat out."
"That's probably how it seemed to you, but the truth was my wolf lunged at you because he wanted to claim you right there. I didn't know what it meant at the time." His mouth twisted in a sardonic grin. "I thought I'd just gone too long without getting laid and my wolf was punishing me for it. But then I went to the Convergence and felt drawn to you there too. Enough so, that I stayed invisible to watch what happened after we left. That's when I realized what I felt had to be the mate bond—it just couldn't be completed because you didn't have your wolf yet."
My heart stuttered in my chest, and suddenly it became hard to breathe. "You knew back then?"
He rested his hands on my shoulders. "Yes and no. There was no doubt in my mind, at least until the mating ritual, when you were bound to Jordan. When I saw that, I assumed I must have been wrong, because how could you be mated to someone else when you were mine?"
"But now we know the mate bond is fake," I whispered, staring up at Kaden with wide, hopeful eyes.
"Exactly. Once I learned that I became certain that what I'd felt back at the Convergence was real. I'm sure that after we remove the false bond with Jordan, our true mate bond will emerge."
"How can you be sure?" I wanted to believe Kaden was my true mate, but it was terrifying to put so much faith in something that might be setting me up for heartbreak.