Page 80 of Binding His Fated Mates

Every head in the room turned in my direction, but it was Carmellia who answered.

“Our magic has been disrupted,” she said. “For the past few days—the better part of a week—our family’s power has been behaving erratically. Spells have been misfiring. Our wards have destabilized. We traced the disruption to its source.” She locked eyes with Daniel. “The source is you. You’ve done something to defile our magic.”

“Oh. Oh, no.” Daniel’s face drained of color. “That’s where they went. It wasn’t a closed circuit at all.”

I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but there was a look of awful understanding on our mate’s face.

“That’s why you’re here,” he added, his voice toneless. “The sympathetic manifestations went into all of you. Into my bloodline. I should have known.”

“Yes. You should have. And is that what you’re calling these travesties? These perversions of our sacred power?” Ash’s voice was acid and his lips slid into a sneer. “Sympathetic manifestations?”

Carmellia frowned at Ash. Clearly, they’d agreed on the carrot rather than the stick, but Ash wasn’t holding up his end of it. Before anyone could reply, she put in, “Whatever you did when you joined your magic with this pack—and yes, we do know about that—it sent a shockwave through every magical connection you have. Including the ones that bind you to us. We came to help you fix it.”

Ash added, “Our family’s magic—magic that has been stable and powerful for generations—has been defiled because you decided to tie yourself to a group of animals.”

The word animals landed in the room like a slap. I felt Hunter’s fury spike through the bond.

“The disruptions should settle on their own,” Daniel protested. “They’ll fade in a month. Maybe even just a few weeks. If you guys can just wait—”

“We are not interested in waiting,” Ash said. “Nor are we interested in allowing the magic of our sacred bloodline to be sullied by these beasts.”

“We’ve come to bring Daniel home,” Carmellia said, speaking to Hunter and me. “Once he’s back with the family, we can stabilize the disruption and repair the damage to our bonds. This situation is untenable. I trust that you won’t attempt any foolishness?”

“I’m not—I don’t—” Daniel started.

“Daniel.” Ash’s voice didn’t rise, but the authority in it was absolute. “This isn’t a discussion. You made a mistake. More than one, it seems. We are here to correct your errors. That’s final. We’ve been exceedingly kind under the circumstances, but we’re willing to use force if we must. What will it be?”

Daniel’s lips snapped shut. His shoulders dropped further, all of the fight seeming to sag out of him at once. And I realized, with icy clarity, that Daniel’s family had never seen him as a person with agency. In their eyes, he was a problem to be managed. A dangerous variable to be controlled. Nothing more than that.

“Get out,” I said, the words coming out flat and cold. They weren’t really angry. Because I was way past anger. This was something harder and more final than that. Beside me, Hunter’s fury had gone quiet, too. It had compressed into something dense, focused, and dangerous.

“Excuse me?” Carmellia said, her eyebrows climbing.

“You heard him. Get out of this cabin. Now,” Hunter growled. His voice matched mine—low, steady, filled with cold fury and the promise of murder. A wolf defending his mate. “You’re not welcome here—not on this commune and not in this town.” A dangerous smile slid across his lips. “We’re willing to use force as well.”

Ash studied us for a long moment. His face didn’t change, but something in his posture shifted—a recalculation, perhaps.

“Daniel is ours,” I added fiercely. “He belongs with us. And with the pack. Leave now, before this conversation goes somewhere none of us can come back from.”

Rowan looked up at Ash. “Dad, we should go.”

Ash held my gaze for another beat. Then he stood, smoothing his jacket with deliberate precision. Carmellia rose beside him. Micah pushed back from the desk, his expression furious and ugly.

“This isn’t over,” Ash said, looking past us to Daniel. The words were directed at his son, not at Hunter or me. “One way or another, you will be leaving with us.”

Carmellia gave Hunter and me an icy smile, her dark eyes glittering in a way that I didn’t like. “My husband is correct. We’ve said everything we need to say.” She paused and her gaze slid to Daniel again. “You may have until sundown to say your goodbyes. We will return for you then. We expect you to be packed and ready to leave. If you’re not, there will be consequences. Not just for you, but for your friends here.”

Micah sneered at his brother. “You know what we’re capable of.”

Daniel flinched, but he didn’t reply to that.

With that, the Henbanes filed out of the cabin.

Rowan was last. She paused in the doorway and looked back at Daniel, who was standing exactly where he’d been since we walked in, his eyes on the floor, his arms wrapped around himself.

“I’m sorry,” Rowan said softly. Her dark eyes, so much like Daniel’s, were bright with something that looked like genuine regret. “For what it’s worth, I tried to talk them out of coming.”

Daniel, shell-shocked and staring, didn’t acknowledge her.