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"That woman, Isolde, was not my mate. She was a changeling…bound to the great oak beyond the marshlands," he repeated. "You are my only lifemate. But I had made a foolish decision because I couldn't let her continue to use me. I didn't know I would meet you mere weeks after her death."

Fae looked at his bent head, her heart squeezing with sympathy for young Blaidd, even when she didn't want to feel that way.

"The changelings were only using me," Blaidd said quietly. "They needed a bloodline strong enough to continue their kind. I was no more than a stud. And I was young and desperate to find my lifemate. I could not believe my wolf could be wrong."

His mouth twisted with agony. "She carried another man's children by the time we met. The twins are not mine. I knew it the moment she came to the pack, but I promised to raise them anyway. I was blinded by loneliness."

Fae's fingers curled into the rock beneath her.

"The witch offered me a way to blunt the false bond. I didn't want any children with that creature. So, I allowed a rune to be carved into my flesh." His jaw clenched. "In return, the witch insisted I honour the changeling. If only...if only I had known..."

He finally looked at her. "I was forbidden to speak of changelings. Forbidden to expose the lie. Forbidden to disturb the shrine she made of our home," he said. "I was locked into this promise for the same period she had spent in my home - eight more years of silence and holding everything in. The truth felt like it was choking me every time I was in that house. Every time I touched you or was close to you, I was afraid I would reveal something."

Understanding struck Fae. Why he had been the way he was. Why he left her behind... But...

"Eight years," she whispered with remembered pain.

He nodded jerkily.

"I agreed because I believed you were dead," he said, desperate to convince her. "And because I thought I would be, too, once she was gone."

Silence stretched between them, heavy with every past moment that could not be undone.

"And Rowena?" Fae whispered at last.

Blaidd seemed to gather his thoughts as he ran a rough hand over his scruffy jaw. "I did not know what she was when I found her, I swear it. She was only an injured she-wolf I found my way ack to the packland. But now..." His eyes darkened. "Now I fear the changelings are not finished with us."

He looked at her like a man standing on the edge of a cliff.

"I know I have no right to ask anything of you," he said quietly. "I came to tell you the truth because you deserve to hear it. Because I don't have to hide it from you anymore."

Fae exhaled slowly, her thoughts a vortex of confusion.

He let his possessive gaze travel over her like sunlight on shimmering silk. His eyes softened, then widened in surprise, something vulnerable flickering there.

"You wear your hair down now," he said softly.

The words carried a strange, aching weight, as though the sight undid him more than any accusation could have.

Then his brow furrowed as he realized something else.

The colour in his eyes shifted, confusion bleeding into fear. He inhaled once, slow and testing, as if searching for a familiar current that was no longer there.

His voice dropped with confusion. "Why can't I feel your wolf?"

Chapter 34

Fae did not answer him at once.

Instead, she reached into the pocket of her yukata and drew out the small silk pouch. The fabric shone bright red, soft to touch. She tipped it into her palm and showed it to him. "This amulet," she said quietly, "suppresses the bond."

Blaidd's eyes dropped to it, sharpening.

"It doesn't sever it cleanly," she went on. "Over time...it could erode it. Dull it until what remains will dissolve." Her fingers curled around the silk. "I don't know what the price would be. For me. For you. For our wolves."

She hesitated, the truth catching in her throat along with fear of the unknown.

"I can feel my wolf; she is hazy, like she is separated from me by a wall. I don't know what it will take from us," she admitted.