Arielle's POV
The blood bond ritual required three things.
Willingness, witnessed. Intent, stated. And the actual binding, which involved both parties making cuts on their palms and pressing them together while speaking the words that translated, in the oldest pack language, to something close to: I bind my life to yours by choice, not by fate.
That last distinction mattered enormously.
The mate bond was fate. Imposed, discovered, rejected or accepted but always external. The blood bond was election. You came to it because you decided to. The entire weight of it rested on choice.
Dessa explained this with her usual careful precision during the preparation conversation.
"Once sealed," she said, "you will share emotional states and physical awareness. Pain, joy, fear, desire. You will
