Rejected For His Brother's Widow

Chapter 4 – The Path of Howling Silver

Riven didn't sleep again.

He paced the sanctuary while I sat on the furs, my bare feet tucked under me. Every time he passed the door he checked the lock.

"You don't have to do this," he said for the tenth time. His voice was low, scraped raw. "The last girl who walked the Path was my cousin. She was fifteen. The silver took her in three steps."

Lira stirred in my chest. *He is afraid for us.*

I looked up at him. The King of the North, who had forced an entire hall to its knees with a word, was shaking.

"Then tell me how to survive it," I said.

He knelt in front of me, careful not to touch my mark. "You don't survive it. It decides. The silver was poured by the first Blessed Luna. It burns out anything false. Old bonds, lies, weakness. If you carry Kael's mark in your blood, it will rip it out."

My breath caught. "It will sever the mate bond?"

"By force," he said. "Most wolves die from the pain. That's why the elders are using it. They don't want proof. They want you dead before you can challenge them."

He took my hands then, his big palms swallowing mine. "We can leave. Right now. My horses are at the south gate. Let Kael keep his rotting pack."

For a second I wanted to say yes. To run with the only person who had ever stood between me and a blade.

Then I thought of the pantry. Of Selene's hand on my throne. Of two years of being told to be quiet and be grateful.

I pulled my hands free. "If I run, I'm still the girl who kneels. If I walk, I'm the Luna who makes them kneel."

Riven stared at me, and something like pride broke through the fear in his eyes. He leaned forward and pressed his forehead to mine. "Then I will be at the end to catch you. If you fall, I fall with you."

Moonrise came too fast.

They'd dug a trench in the center of the great hall, thirty feet long, and filled it with liquid silver. It didn't glow. It sang. A high, painful whine that made every wolf in the room cover their ears.

The elders stood on one side in their gray robes. Selene stood next to Kael, her burned smile perfect, her hand resting on her belly like a shield. Kael wouldn't look at me. His jaw was clenched so tight I could see the muscle jump.

The eldest elder raised his staff. "Elara of the South, unmarked and claimed by a foreign king, you will walk. If the Goddess finds you false, the silver will take you. If true, it will sing for you."

Riven stood at the far end of the trench, alone. His hands were fists. He mouthed one word to me. *Breathe.*

I stepped up to the edge barefoot. The heat hit my soles even before I touched it.

I put my foot down.

Pain white-hot shot up my leg. Not burning. Remembering.

The silver showed me Kael at sixteen, slipping his mother's ring on my finger in the woods. "You're my Luna, Elara. Always."

Then it showed me Kael two weeks ago, not looking at me while he said, "Kneel for your Luna," to Selene.

Then it showed me my mother on her deathbed, holding my face. "You were not born to serve, little bird. You were born to soar."

I screamed. Lira screamed with me inside my skull. *Keep going!*

I took the second step. The silver hissed and turned black under my foot, like ink spreading in water. The singing stopped.

The crowd gasped.

Selene lunged forward. "She's cheating! She's using Northern witchcraft!"

She grabbed my arm to pull me off the Path. Her palm brushed the edge of the silver.

It branded her instantly.

She shrieked and stumbled back, cradling her hand. The skin was red and blistered in the shape of a crescent moon. She clutched her belly and doubled over, sobbing. Kael caught her, holding her up, his face panicked.

He chose her. Again. In front of everyone.

Something cold and final clicked into place in my chest.

I lifted my foot and took the third step. Then the fourth. The silver wasn't burning me anymore. It was turning to light under my skin, running up my ankles like liquid starlight.

By the tenth step I wasn't walking. I was being carried. Lira was fully forward, her power mixing with mine, and every old hurt Kael had ever given me was being pulled out through my soles and burned away.

I reached the end and my knees buckled.

Riven caught me. He crushed me to his chest, his heart hammering against my cheek.

The silver in the trench flared pure white, so bright the elders cried out and covered their eyes.

A voice rolled out of my throat, but it wasn't mine. It was layered, female, ancient.

"She is Mine. He is Hers."

Light shot from my mark and hit Riven's chest. His own mark answered, and a silver thread, thick as a rope, snapped into place between us, visible to every wolf in the hall.

At the same second, I felt it. A thin, red, rotting thread deep in my ribs — my bond with Kael — shuddered and tore clean in half.

Kael screamed. He fell to his knees in the middle of the hall, clutching his chest, blood running from his nose. His wolves howled in pain with him.

The bond was gone. Severed by the Goddess herself.

I pushed out of Riven's arms and stood on my own shaking legs. I turned to face the pack that had watched me serve soup for two years.

I opened my mouth and let Lira howl.

The sound was not human. It shook the stones. It shook the silver. Every wolf in the great hall, Southern and Northern, dropped to their bellies. Even the elders. Even Selene, still whimpering over her burned hand.

Only Riven remained standing, staring at me like I was the moon come down.

The eldest elder pressed his forehead to the floor. "The Blessed Luna has chosen."

Riven stepped close, his hand hovering at my waist like he was afraid I'd break. "You just killed him without touching him," he whispered, awe in his voice.

I looked at Kael broken on the floor, at Selene curled around her belly, and felt nothing but clean, cold power for the first time in my life.

Then the light faded, and with it came a flash that wasn't a memory.

Snow. Blood on snow. Riven lying still, his chest open, his amber eyes closed. My hands covered in silver, screaming his name.

I gasped and grabbed his tunic.

He caught my face instantly. "Elara? What did you see?"

I couldn't answer. The vision was already fading, but the terror stayed.

Behind us, Kael dragged himself to his feet, his eyes pure hate, and mouthed one promise I could read across the silent hall.

This isn't over.