I put my hand on his and he gripped it. “You must have been so scared.”

He nodded, and when he started speaking again, his voice was so quiet I had to lean closer. “I told them everything. After that, to my dad, I was the betrayer. The one that took everything away.”

“You did what was right,” I said, squeezing his hand.

He shrugged. “That’s not how he sees it. Or Eva.”

We ate in silence for a few minutes, our minds full. Then I shivered and Declan started packing things up. I tried to argue that I wasn’t that cold, but he just shot me a look. I shook the blanket and folded it before handing it to Declan. True to his word, he insisted on carrying our things back up the trail.

I thought about everything that he’d said, everything that I knew about Campbell and Eva. “Why did he pick her as a mate?”

“She was very powerful,” Declan said. “He wanted a strong mate, but not necessarily anyone who was actually competition. Eva could rule with him, but the pack would never accept her without him. At the end of the day, she’s not a wolf.”

“But I’m surprised he picked an animal mage. Wasn’t he worried that she would take him over like she did you?” I asked, waiting for Declan as he loaded our stuff into the SUV. He threw me the keys so I could drive. He was tired after the run, and odds were good he’d nap on the way home. I climbed into my seat, closed the door, and buckled up as I talked. “Did he assume she wouldn’t try to bind him, or did he think he was strong enough to resist her magic?”

Declan shook his head as he buckled himself in. “No. I mean, don’t get me wrong—Angus could be the king of hubris, but he was also a paranoid man. He liked having an animal mage as his partner, but he made sure she couldn’t use her magic on him.”

“She couldn’t put the familiar bond on him?” I said, surprised. “Do you know why?” If Angus had a trick to block Eva, why hadn’t Declan mentioned it?

Declan leaned into his seat, his eyes already closing. “Mating bond. It’s stronger than the familiar magic, acts as a block. There was no way she could take him as a familiar after that.”

“Huh,” I said, turning so I could check behind me before I backed up. “Of course, that would mean she had an even tighter hold on him, right? Not that I know much about the mating bond.”

Declan smiled, though he kept his eyes shut. “It’s a more intimate bond, yes, but the power balance is different.”

I thought about that as I pulled back onto the main road. He was right. That was one of the tricky things about binding familiars. The human was, technically, the one in the driving seat. They didn’t control the animal per se, but they had power over them. If they were strong enough, they could overwhelm their familiar, or at least influence them until the creature’s will twisted in the direction the mage wanted.