Chapter 436

“And the wolf not recognizing Aria as a mate,” Nina said, “which is an integration problem, is being addressed by-”

“By the bond functioning,” I said. “As it functions. Which it does. It works.”

“Kael,” Jordan said.

“Jordan,” I said.

“You care about her,” Jordan said.

“She’s my mate,” I said. “The bond creates-”

“You care about her,” Jordan said. “Not the bond. You. Personally. As a person who has been in a room with her for the past several months and has observed the kind of person she is. You care about her.”

“I have regard for her wellbeing,” I said. “Which is appropriate given—” 1

“She screamed,” Nina said. “When the anchor hit her. When Ivory’s pain came through. She screamed and you were across the corridor.”

“Yes,” I said.

“Jordan was closer,” Nina said.

I said nothing.

“Jordan was literally physically closer to her than you were,” Nina said. “When the sound happened.”

“I was moving toward-”

“You moved faster,” Nina said. “Jordan was closer and you moved faster and you got there first. That’s not the bond creating situational awareness. That’s you responding to a specific person in distress at a speed that reflected something more specific than general mate-responsibility.”

“I respond quickly to threat stimulus,” I said. “It’s trained-”

“You put your hands on her arms,” Jordan said. “To steady her. The wolf didn’t snarl.”

I drove.

The road ahead was the kind that went through the lower territory before it reached the network of paths that would take us to the facility. Dark, tree-lined, the headlights doing their work against it.

“The wolf didn’t snarl,” Jordan said again. “At Aria. In the corridor, when you touched her. Your wolf, who snarled and showed teeth at her in the clinic when she took one step toward Ivory – didn’t snarl when you had your hands on her arms to steady her when she screamed.”

–

“The context was different,” I said. “The wolf reads context. In the clinic the context was threat- adjacent, in the corridor the context was-”

“You tell me,” Jordan said.

I said nothing.

“The wolf is responding to how you feel,” Nina said. “The integration problem isn’t separate from the man’s position on things. The wolf follows the man’s stronger feelings, in the absence of the man’s clear direction. You’ve been unclear, internally, about Aria. You’ve been committed to the choice and managing the complications of the choice and the wolf has been responding to the management rather than the commitment.” She paused. “When the commitment becomes something the man is genuinely in rather than something he’s faithfully maintaining the wolf will follow.”

—

“That’s a significant oversimplification,” I said.

“That’s accurate and you know it,” she said.

“There are other factors,” I said.

“There are always other factors,” she said. “There are also basics. You moved faster than Jordan to reach Aria. That’s a basic.”

“It’s a practical decision not to have Jordan be the first contact in that kind of situation,” I said. “Maintaining appropriate-”

“Oh stop,” Jordan said.

“Jordan-”

“Just stop,” Jordan said, not unkindly. “You told her to stay behind tonight so you wouldn’t have to worry about her. Those were your words. *So I can focus on what we’re going in there to do.* Worrying about someone is not a practical concern. It’s not operational framing. It’s personal.”

“The concern for her safety is—”

“Personal,” Jordan said.

“Operationally relevant,” I said.

“Personal,” Jordan said again.

“Both,” I said.

“Progress,” Jordan said.

“That’s not-”

“You’re mellowing,” Elite said, from the back.

I looked in the mirror. She was still looking at her tactical maps.

“I’m not-”

“You are,” she said. “Objectively. Measurable by several indicators over the past three months. The decision-making is still operational. But the edge has softened. The specific quality that made visiting Alphas call you Kael Deranged is still present but it’s-” she appeared to consult her maps for a moment, “-less ambient. More directed. You’re not carrying it constantly anymore.”

“I put three holes in the training wall today,” I said.

“Two of which were in direct response to specific provocation,” she said. “The third was authorized therapeutic release. That’s different from the ambient version. The ambient

version was the one that existed during the curse years and the first year after, when you were

་་

“Containing the wolf,” Jordan said.

“Compensating,” Elite said. “For the integration gap. Performing the whole of it because the wolf part was unreliable.” She finally looked up from the maps. “The performance level has decreased. Which indicates the gap is smaller.”

“That’s-”