Page 23 of The Wolf's Appetite
She stepped closer, and when she spoke, her voice was a whisper. “I’m here to help him.”
My throat tightened.
“With his wolf,” she said softly. “His beast was screaming in agony after the wound nearly severed the tether between spirit and body. If it had gone on unchecked, the pain would’ve driven him to madness.”
My heart clenched, and realization was a hot poker right in my middle. “So ye?—”
“I silenced the wolf,” she confirmed, her gaze steady on mine. “Muted him. Temporarily.”
My lips parted, but she kept speaking, as if she’d waited years to unburden these truths.
“His wolf was wounded beyond flesh. The blade that nearly took Lennox’s life severed more thanmuscle. It tore at the spirit—at the ancient bond that ties the beast to the man. If I hadn’t acted, the pain would have driven him mad. You’ve seen it, haven’t you? That quiet in him… that rage simmering just beneath the surface?”
I nodded, my throat too tight to speak.
“He needed time,” she said. “Time to heal without the wolf tearing him apart from the inside out. Time to findyou.”
My heart was thundering. I knew she could hear it. “Why me?” I whispered.
Her eyes lit with something too vast for this world. “Because you’re his fated mate, Aisling. You are the catalyst. The one thing powerful enough to draw his wolf back from the dark. Without you, the bond stays dormant. Broken.”
I swayed where I stood.
“You’re not just a spark in his life—you’re the flame. The one who can anchor him when the wolf returns. The one who can balance what he’s becoming with what he used to be. Your presence will either stabilize him…”
She stepped closer, her voice lowering to a whisper.
“…or consume him.”
An icy shiver ran down my spine.
“His wolf hasn’t recognized me as his mate… and mine hasn’t, either,” I whispered. “But the way we ache for each other, the way desire coils tight like instinct—it feels like everything I’ve heard about the bond, just without the confirmation our wolves are supposed to give.”
Magdalena stilled, her expression unreadable for a moment before something ancient flickered in her eyes.
“Because the bond has already rooted itself in your souls,” she said softly. “Long before your wolves were ready.”
I blinked, stunned.
Her voice lowered with gravity. “The body knows, Aisling. The heart knows. But sometimes the wolf is tied to instinct and survival and must be coaxed into remembering what fate already carved. Especially when one wolf is wounded—or silenced.” She looked toward the shadows where Lennox had disappeared. “Your wolves aren’t rejecting the bond. They’re simply waiting—held back by trauma. By fear. By wounds you cannot see.”
Her gaze returned to mine, and I felt like crying, like thanking the gods that I was given some kind of explanation as to thewhyof it all.
“But when the silence breaks, when his wolf rises again… the recognition will explode like a storm.”
“Does he kno’?” I whispered. “That ye did this?”
She exhaled slowly. “Not yet.But he will. Iwanthim to know. He needs to understand what was done and why—so he doesn’t run from what’s waking inside him. So he doesn’t run from you.”
I nodded, though I didn’t feel steady. I felt like the ground beneath me was shifting.
“But be warned, Aisling,” she added, her voice sharpening. “When his wolf returns, it won’t come back docile or tamed. It will returnknowing. With a hunger onlyyoucan sate.”
She reached out and took my hand, her skin papery and warm yet pulsing with a strange, thrumming energy. For a heartbeat, I swore I saw a younger woman behind her aged face—feral and beautiful, full of moonlight and power.
Then she was just a woman again. Wrinkled. Wise. Knowing.
“Some males,” she said softly, “must lose the loudest part of themselves to truly hear–and see–what matters. What’s been right in front of them all along. To understand what they’ve been given... and what they might lose forever.”
