He Loved Her, I Tore Up Our Contract

Chapter 2

The Blood Moon ceremony was held in the pack's sacred grove.

The ancient moonstone glowed faintly blue against the dark, and the wolves of the pack circled it in solemn rings, waiting for the rite to begin.

I sat among the women, dressed in a simple white gown.

My hair was twisted up off the slim curve of my neck.

There ought to have been a mark there.

Five years on, the skin remained unbroken. Untouched.

I felt their eyes on me from every direction,pity, scorn, the bright cruel pleasure of those who delight in watching a woman fall. To stand as the Alpha's mate and yet bear no mark was, in our world, a humiliation no woman walked away from with her dignity intact.

But I no longer cared.

I lifted my gaze toward the ceremonial dais.

Alpha Kael stood there, draped in a long black robe, his silver eyes fathomless beneath the moon.

A woman stood at his side. Golden hair. Green eyes.

Mira.

She was even more devastating than she had been five years ago.

Time had left no mark on her face; if anything, it had given her a richness, a knowing maturity. She wore the elaborate finery of the northern aristocracy, and from her wrist hung a delicate chain of crystals that caught the moonlight and threw it back in shards.

It was the love-token Alpha Kael had given her the day she left him.

Five years. He had kept it.

I lowered my head and let out a small, bitter laugh.

It was then that Mira's gaze swept across the crowd and settled, at last, on me.

Something complicated moved behind those green eyes,curiosity, appraisal, and beneath them both…

Pity.

I looked away. I would not let myself sit beneath that look.

The ceremony began.

The eldest of the pack stepped before the moonstone and began to chant in the old tongue. The clouds parted overhead, and silver light cascaded down through the branches, drowning the grove in an otherworldly glow.

By tradition, this was the moment the Alpha and his mate forged the spirit-link, sensing each other's heartbeats through the moon's borrowed power.

It was the holiest moment a mated pair could share.

Alpha Kael descended from the dais and walked toward me, slow and steady.

The crowd hushed. Every wolf there was watching.

I rose.

The moonlight fell across him as he came, sharpening every line of his face.

He really was beautiful.

Five years had not made me deny that. They had only made me understand, more clearly with each passing day, that this man would never be mine.

He stopped before me. The silver eyes settled on my face.

He said nothing. He simply lifted his hand, as if to take mine.

And in that very moment.

Boots came pounding through the trees, shattering the stillness of the rite.

A young warrior in battle leathers staggered into the clearing, his face the color of milk.

"Alpha!"

He dropped to one knee, his voice thick with the panic he was trying to swallow.

"A messenger from the North! The family of Lady Mira's late mate,they've sent envoys to our border!"

Alpha Kael's brow furrowed.

"What?"

"They say,they say Lady Mira had a betrothal still binding her in the North. That her return here was made without their consent. They demand Lady Mira come back, or,or the North will declare war on Silverfang Pack."

A ripple of sound went through the crowd.

I watched the color drop out of Alpha Kael's face. Mira clapped a hand to her mouth, and her eyes went wide with fear.

I had been the Alpha's mate long enough to understand the politics that bound us. The northern family was vast and powerful. Their territory shared a long contested border with Silverfang Pack, and they had been a quiet threat for as long as I could remember.

If they declared war.

I looked at Alpha Kael, and a strange, unwelcome thought rose in my chest.

Five years ago, the battle in which my grandfather had fallen was a clash with that same North. That war had dragged on three full months. The Silverfang Pack had been bled white.

And now, with Mira's return, war was coming for us again.

"Enough."

Alpha Kael's voice fell like a blade.

He turned to the messenger, his eyes hard with the gravity of his rank.

"Tell them Mira is a guest of Silverfang Pack. Any threat against our guest is a declaration of war."

His voice rang out into the cold air, weighted with the unmistakable pressure of an Alpha's command.

The messenger nodded once and disappeared back the way he had come.

Alpha Kael turned to Mira and offered his hand.

"You've been frightened tonight. I'll have the Beta escort you back to rest."

Mira nodded and slipped her hand into his.

As she turned to go, her eyes found mine.

The green of them was full of difficult things. Her lips parted, almost as if she meant to speak,but no words came. In the end, she said nothing at all.

The ceremony broke apart.

The crowd began to disperse, voices low, words trading from mouth to mouth on the night wind.

I stood where I was, watching the two of them walk away.

The moon rested on my face, and a strange chill settled into me. Not from the wind. From somewhere deeper,a place inside me that was, slowly and quietly, going cold.

Five years ago, I had believed I could trade my heart for his.

Five years on, I finally understood that some men had never been mine to begin with.

A vibration buzzed against my hip. I drew out my phone.

A message from one of the elders.

Lady Isla, the Council requests your presence. Please come to the Hall of Elders tomorrow morning.

I read it once. And then I smiled.

Perhaps, this time, this really was the end.