Unbound

Chapter 21

Odette was alone the following morning when I arrived for work, and again both times I left the medical room to get tea and refresh Ephraim's mug of coffee in the kitchen. She wasn't as animated as she usually seemed, nor was she particularly talkative. Even her style was subdued: she wore a simple, dark sweater and her hair was tied back into a low ponytail. Instead of cleaning, or cooking, or otherwise moving around, she was curled up with a book in her lap. Her fingers idly wrapped themselves in the knit blanket draped across the arm of the chair. I hadn't heard a page turn once; I was almost certain she'd made no progress on the book all morning.

"Kiera, isn't it?" She stopped me on my way to the fridge where I'd put my lunch.

I turned back to her and offered a polite smile. "That's right."

"Will you have lunch with me? I don't really have any friends here. I could use one." She sounded so hesitant as she asked, so unlike the confident woman that had breezed into the kitchen unannounced. I didn't want to say yes, but I knew the feeling of isolation too well. So I bit my tongue and nodded, and her eager grin made me feel just slightly better about my decision.

Odette drove us into town and I sent Aubrey a text to meet us at the diner. Whatever Odette had to say about Gabriel, I didn't want to hear it alone. And if I was unable to keep up my side of the conversation, there was no doubt Aubrey would carry it just fine on her own. She'd been itching for me to tell her what it was like being around the two of them every day, and now she had a chance to hear about it straight from the source.

The three of us sat together in a booth tucked into the back corner of the small diner. It was one of the few places in town that hadn't been updated to fit Castle wolves, and I loved it for that reason. It was retro and cozy, and the cracked vinyl on the seats and defunct jukeboxes on every table only added to its charm.

Odette picked at her fries; she'd hardly touched her meal. While Aubrey chattered about the clinic, she stared out the window blankly at the low grey clouds. It would be snowing within the hour.

"Is everything alright?" I finally worked up the nerve to interrupt her reverie. "You seem down."

She lowered her eyes to her plate. "I thought this would be easier."

"Thought what would be easier?" Aubrey turned sideways on the bench to face Odette, curling one leg up onto the seat.

"Mating, I guess. I'd always heard it would come naturally, but I feel like I'm working so hard." Odette looked first at Aubrey, then at me. "What was it like for you?"

"I can't mate. But I have a partner who I love." I wanted to find something reassuring to say, but even what I had with Jack, though not a mate bond, had come as naturally as breathing.

"It shouldn't be a challenge. Afterwards, sure, when you're learning to live a life together. But in the beginning, it's like..." Aubrey frowned, searching for the right words. "Lightning. Fast and sharp and out of nowhere. It should take your breath away. It should take his, too."

"Oh." Odette again looked between us. "You don't know, do you?"

"Know what?" Aubrey asked.

"Gabriel, he...he was bound."

Aubrey sat back then, a quick breath leaving her lungs in a shock of air. "I thought that was just a rumor."

Odette shook her head, pulling apart a napkin on the table in front of her and worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. Bound? I didn't understand the term, nor Aubrey's reaction to it, and I said as much.

"It's a ritual," Aubrey explained while Odette turned her attention once more to the clouds. "It binds your wolf from linking to a mate. It's an old practice, old magic. I had no idea it was still around."