Page 29 of The Baker and the Kraken

Calder smiled at him and hoped he didn’t look as nervous as he felt. “I’m glad. But… there are probably a few more things I should tell you.”

Adam sat abruptly straighter, his eyes going wide. “There’s more?”

Calder held up his hands. “You know everything about my shifter forms—or at least as much as can be shared in a short conversation. But there are, uh, some things that I think it only fair I share about the bond.”

Adam’s cheeks went pink, and Calder realized that hadn’t been the way to bring up the topic. He groaned. “I’m saying this all wrong. I’ve never done this before.”

Surprisingly, that made Adam relax again. “I’ve never been very good at relationships. But you’re right. Communication is important.”

Calder nodded. “Yes, exactly. What I was trying to say was that I hope that at some point in the future, you’ll agree to bond with me. It’s not a deal-breaker!” he hastened to add, though it was way more complicated than that. “Just being with you is amazing, and I know you have some feelings to work through about bonding.”

Adam shook his head. “I can’t keep dragging around what happened to my mom and my aunts. That’s not fair.”

“But those feelings also aren’t going to disappear in a heartbeat, and I understand that,” Calder argued softly. “I’d like you to be informed, but you don’t need to make any decisions right away. This isn’t meant to pressure you, just to allow you to make a fully consenting decision eventually, alright?”

Adam considered him for a long moment, and then said, “Yeah, alright. That makes sense.” He sighed. “I’ve, uh, kind of focused on the negative aspects of the bond most of my life, which is hardly fair. I should be better informed.”

Carefully, Calder explained, “A bond with a mythical shifter isn’t the same as a bond with a shifter. There are many similarities, of course. But there are also a number of differences.”

A furrow appeared in Adam’s brow. “What does that actually mean?”

Calder huffed a breath. Yeah, way to be vague. “The bond with a mythical shifter is… more. Are you aware that a shifter familiar bond allows the witch and the shifter to feel one another’s emotions?”

Adam nodded.

“Well, with me, you would also be able to communicate mentally.”

Adam’s eyes went wide as saucers as he gasped out, “Like telepathy?”

Calder nodded. “Yes. It goes beyond emotional state to actual verbalization.”

“Wow,” Adam whispered.

Clearing his throat, Calder said, “Although I’ve never experienced it myself, I’ve been told that mates can learn to control it. It’s not like every thought is suddenly known between them.”

“That’s so amazing.”

Thankfully, Adam really sounded like he thought it was a positive and not something to be feared.

“You’re aware that you get a boost in magic if you form a familiar bond?” Calder continued.

Adam nodded, making a face that Calder couldn’t quite interpret until he began to speak. “Like I said, it’s part of what made things so messy with Dad. I think he felt like that was one of the reasons that Mom left. That she wanted more power that she got with her shifter colleague.”

Calder didn’t know what to say to that, but thankfully, Adam continued.

“You know, I’ve been thinking about it more since you and Simon made me realize that I was being a jerk about shifters. I think Mom and Dad fought—before she left, I mean. And I know people can fight without splitting up, but I had it in my head that it was out of the blue, that everything was perfect before and that she was lured away by that shifter.” He made a face. “I think that’s how Dad always talked about it. But I wonder now if there were deeper problems, if it really was just chance.” Adam shrugged. “Or maybe it really was the shifter familiar bond. Maybe she wanted that. But maybe that was incidental to everything else. Maybe she just fell out of love with my dad and into love with something else, and that’s just… a thing that happens sometimes. Or maybe it was those instincts you talked about, and they really were driving her to someone else. I guess I’ll never know for sure.”

Gently, Calder said, “I’m sorry she left you.”

Adam blew out a breath, his expression conflicted. “It’s impossible to know what my life would be like if she’d stayed or if she’d taken me with her. I think some of my resentment towards shifters was assuming that she didn’t want me—which of course I can’t know. She did ask me to go with her, and I said no. Probably the childish part of me hoped that by doing that, she’d choose to stay instead. When she didn’t… Well, it was easier to imagine that a shifter had lured her away than to accept the idea that my mom just didn’t want me enough. But as an adult, I can also see that staying in a marriage just for your child isn’t very healthy. Could she have made different choices and fought to stay in the country so we’d see one another more often? Maybe. But maybe she did the best she could with the options she had at the time. Maybe if Dad or I had been less hurt, we could have stayed in better contact.”

Calder thought she could have tried a lot harder, but he was obviously coming at this from a very biased direction. He couldn’t begin to imagine anyone not choosing Adam every time, actively making that happen no matter what.

But what if that shifter really was her fated mate? What if she’d felt as drawn to him as Calder was to Adam, and that shifter and her son went in two different directions?

Calder really didn’t like it, but he tried to be reasonable. “It’s hard to understand everything about why people behave the way that they do. The situation can be complicated. And unfortunately, people sometimes make asinine decisions that hurt other people.”

Thankfully, this made Adam huff out a laugh and relax a bit.