After the ceremony, I stood alone beneath the cedar.
Damian had already gone.
All he had left in the snow was a shallow footprint and the mate ring.
I didn't pick it up.
Rowan approached from behind and stopped one step away.
"Theo chose me today. That doesn't mean you should do the same."
He had no ring, no prepared vows.
He didn't even reach out to me.
"I know."
"If you want our relationship to go no further than this, I'll accept that."
Lyla gave me an irritated nip from inside my mind.
I couldn't help laughing.
"What's so funny?"
"Funny how the most terrifying Lycan King in the Northern Territory had so much to say at a time like this."
Rowan narrowed his silver eyes.
The aura of a predator finally unfurled from him, but it still stopped at the edge of my boundaries.
"T
