Willow’s POV

Now here he was, telling me they hadn't crossed any lines.

Seraphine's sendings kept coming through the howl-network, one after another.

Tilting her head in deference to the pack elders, gathering the moon-blessing pouches offered for the new bond, pouring the ceremonial mead, the Ashmore patriarch's toast beneath the rising moon...

Before I even realized it, all of this had gone far past what Kael had promised me. She was only supposed to walk through the entrance of the Ceremony Grove. Nothing more.

It wasn't until the very last part, the scattering of moonflower petals over the pack, that Kael's mind-link sending finally trickled in.

[Are you at the den-lodge yet? Wait a while longer in the side chamber. Sera is having fun, so she went ahead and did the rest of the ceremony too.]

[Don't be upset about it. Just think of it as making up for how you made her cry earlier.]

The side chamber was only two doors away from the ceremony grove.

Even so, he wouldn't come look in on me. Not once. His scent never once drifted toward my door, that cold cedar and tarnished copper that used to find me before he did.

I didn't answer Kael.

I just cropped a corner of the crystal-image Seraphine had spread across the network, the one showing my sacred feast-offering already smashed beyond recognition, and sent it to him.

[Why did you let her touch my feast-offering.]

[It's just a feast-cake, what's the big deal, I'll have the lodge-keepers go bake another one.]

I bit my lip until it went white. Somewhere beneath my ribs my wolf went very still, the way she went still when a wound was too deep to howl over.

[Everything you promised me. Have you forgotten all of it?]

Why…?

When I was already this far past disappointment, did my heart still hurt this much?

The mating gown I had searched more than a dozen den-halls to find, the one Seraphine secretly tried on and stretched out of shape. But Kael had said, what's the big deal? Just get another one.

The little moonlit garden grove I'd fallen in love with, the one Seraphine quietly swapped for a grand, dreamy ceremony hall. Kael had said, do what she wanted, she had better taste.

By the very end of the ceremony planning, my one and only request was that I baked the sacred feast-offering with my own hands. I had told Kael this was the biggest wish I had as a hearth-keeper.

Seraphine hadn't returned to our territory yet, then.

Kael had stood outside my soon-to-open den-kitchen and gently tweaked my nose.

"My baby's so easy to please."

"Fine. When the day comes, I'll keep an eye on every single guest at the mating ceremony. Every wolf has to clean their plate and then howl an eight-hundred-word rave for our master hearth-keeper."

I laughed and threw myself into his arms.

"Such a smooth talker!"

I dragged the progress bar of the crystal-image back again and again, watching that short clip.

The feast-offering I'd come to the lodge early to finish had been torn to pieces.

Before anyone had even taken a bite, Seraphine smeared it across the face of one of Kael's packmates.

The whole gathering broke into laughter and playful pushing, smearing frosting on one another.

My wish was completely ignored.

The cake was crushed underfoot, smeared on the walls, and tossed away with the kitchen scraps. The warm scent of honey and brown sugar, mixed with my own scent that was baked into every layer, was ground into the floor by careless feet.

The reply on the other end paused for a few seconds.

The next second, it drove straight into my heart again.

[Willow Thornheart, a person shouldn't be so ungrateful.]

[It's just a feast-cake, why make such a fuss? Not a single one of your kin showed up, even the she-wolves at your side were ones Sera rounded up to save you from an empty grove.]

The scar was ripped open all over again.

I jabbed at the sending-stone so hard it clicked and clicked.

[The reason my pack wouldn't come. Aren't you the one who knows best?]

The other end went silent.

The pain I'd buried settled back down into my lower belly, dragged up by the memory.

That day. Blood everywhere on the floor, a tearing, ripping agony.

On instinct, I'd sent the mind-link call to the one I trusted most.

The instant the link connected, a spoiled, shrill she-wolf's voice was already yelling.

"Hey, hey, busy Alpha! You promised to spend the whole day with us. Hang up the link—no answering calls!"

I could hear the loud, cheerful noise of the ceremony around them, followed by the soft hum as the communication link was disconnected.

I lost a pup.

When I woke, I was lying in the Healing Hall.

The first face I saw wasn't Kael's. It was my den-mate's.

She was the one who'd caught my scent gone wrong, found me collapsed at home after her patrol, carried me to the Healers, and pressed her paw-mark to the treatment consent for me too.

I had known her less than a moon then. She took the risk and signed her name for me.

Willow’s POV

Kael had hung up on me to go running the ridge trails with his childhood packmate.

The moon-healer's face was tight with sympathy, her ears folded low against her skull.

"The pup was slipping from you. If you'd been carried into the Healing Hall even half an hour sooner, we could have held the life inside you."

Suffocating despair closed over me. Somewhere deep beneath my ribs, my wolf sank to the ground and would not rise.

I sent for Kael over and over, the mind-link sendings going out and out into nothing.

Not until night fell did I finally have someone at my side. My parents, who had run across hundreds of miles of dark territory to reach me. Not Kael, who was only three ridges off at the trail-grounds, keeping Seraphine company.

That day something in me went dead, and I went home with my parents.

Something occurred to me, and I opened the mind-link thread with the cousin I was closest to, Fern Thornheart.

Before the mating procession set out, she'd sent to me.

[Hey, is the ceremony about to start?]

A few beats later.

[Don't be too upset. I know Aunt and Uncle forbade us from the ceremony grove, but honestly, they've been having regrets.]

[I really believe things between you can smooth over.]

She had sent me a crystal orb.

Looking at the image frozen on the screen, with my mother and father still captured in it, I couldn't bring myself to play it.

Now, with a trembling finger, I finally started the recording.

My parents were sitting on a bench in my aunt's den. Their eyes were already red from crying, and their wolves seemed close to the surface. Even through the recording, I could almost sense my mother's familiar scent of fresh bread and warm hearth ash.

Mom kept wiping at her tears.

"Why does that girl have to be so stubborn? We told her that Ashmore boy was no good."

"Who runs off chasing another she-wolf while his own intended is losing his pup?"

"And then what? He kneels in the snow all night outside the Healing Hall, kneels himself half to death, spits out some hollow little Moon Goddess vow, and she goes soft on him."

Father's fingers curled around his cup, and he said nothing. A low sound built in his chest, banked embers and warm iron, the scent of a father holding his wolf on a very short leash.

While my mother was furious, smacked his arm.

"And you, why did you have to say such harsh things? Telling her if she dared take the Ashmore bond, she was no daughter of the Thornheart line."

"Well, now look. Our girl's actually gone."

Watching the new silver come into my parents' hair, my tears fell one by one.

My father was quiet for a long while, then drew a bloodline dowry-token from inside his vest and pressed it into my cousin's palm.

"Fern, carry this to your cousin when the chance comes."

"There's five hundred thousand gold moons sealed in it. Don't let her be treated as anything less than what she is under that pack's roof."

A whole day of held-back feeling broke loose.

I buried my face and couldn't stop the sobs, crying until my throat went raw. Deep inside me my wolf made a sound I'd never heard it make before, a low keening that had no name.

There was only one thought in my head: I want to go home.

I didn't bother straightening anything, just grabbed my things and stuffed them into the case.

I couldn't even wait for the first light-run come morning, so I paid two thousand moons for a cross-territory run straight home.

The moment I clicked the case shut, Kael's sending reached me.

"Willow, why aren't you answering me?"

I didn't respond.

He clicked his tongue, but didn't press it, his voice offhand.

"Things got a little out of control. Part of the ceremony grove was damaged, so I had the pack prepare a smaller clearing at the last minute. We'll hold the ceremony there instead."

The main grove was huge, stretching ten thousand paces across. The smaller clearing was only a thousand paces wide.

The people who came to watch the mating ceremony got the large grove, while the person the ceremony was actually meant for was left with the small clearing.

In Kael's mouth it was as easy as trading one den for another. But I couldn't be bothered to argue anymore.

I answered flatly, "Fine."

Not hearing the complaint he'd expected, Kael paused. Even across the distance I felt his surprise ripple down the thread.

Once it sank in, he let out a breath of relief.

"Now that's more like it."

"The pack's already setting the clearing, and I just had someone bake an identical feast-offering."

Something seemed to occur to him. His voice softened and dropped lower, carrying a hint of warmth.

Even through the link, the memory of his scent seemed gentler now—the smell of old rain fading into cold cedar and weathered copper.

"Willow, you're about to be my mate. The ceremony starts at moonrise. Make sure you're there on time."

The link went dark.

I slipped the claiming token off my finger and set it on the nightstand beside the bed. The mark that should have felt warm whenever he was near only held a dull, cold ache now—the fading trace of a bond that had never really been complete.

Then I turned, and stepped out into the cross-territory run home.