I used to be naive enough to believe that if Raven Duskveil just disappeared from our territory, we could go back to how things were.
And what happened?
Raven merely stood there, and our fragile mate bond crumbled to dust.
Because of the two of them, my sire paid with his life.
Because of the two of them, I'd wasted ten years of mine.
It was like the other shoe had finally dropped. My heart had never felt this calm.
"Kael, let's reject the bond."
His head snapped up.
Then came the irritated pinch of his brow. He flicked on the den lights and tossed his jacket carelessly onto the fur-draped settee.
"Lyra, you know I swore a blood oath to your sire that I'd never break our mating bond."
"What happened just now—that was my fault. I shouldn't have gone to see Raven."
"But she went from being a respected pack member to selling wildflowers at the territory border. She's suffered enough."
"I just felt guilty, wanted to give her some compensation. I won't see her again!"
I slowly lifted my gaze to the Alpha standing before me.
We'd spent twenty years side by side, yet his scent felt like a complete stranger's.
"What about me? Haven't I suffered enough? How do you plan to compensate me?"
After my dam passed, my sire took me to serve at a remote mountain outpost far from pack lands.
That's where I met Kael Stormhowl.
His dam had gotten pregnant outside of a proper mating bond, then been abandoned by her lover. She gave birth to him and left him with his elderly grandmother, the pack matriarch.
My sire took a liking to this quiet, hardworking pup.
Then one night, during a terrible storm, Kael knocked on our den door.
His grandmother, Selene Stormhowl, had died. His aunt Vesper Stormhowl wanted to invoke bloodline den-claims on the ancestral home and was casting him out.
Covered in mud, utterly wretched, he knelt on the ground and begged my sire to take him in. Said he'd serve like a low-rank wolf to repay the kindness.
My sire was still hesitating when I stepped forward and took Kael's hand.
"Father, let him stay."
From that day on, Kael became part of our pack.
He was sensible and never idle.
When my sire was busy with pack duties, Kael looked after me—hunting small game, preparing meals, even learning to braid my hair in different styles.
I became his little shadow.
When he trained with the other young wolves, I'd play outside the training grounds, glancing up whenever I wanted to see him.