Selene's words landed and didn't finish landing, the way the worst news always seemed to lately, arriving in pieces that kept unfolding long after the first blow.
"Prove it's something else entirely," I repeated. "What does that even mean?"
"I don't know," Selene said. "He wouldn't elaborate beyond that. Just said he has documentation, and that the pack deserves to understand the truth before another ceremony is built on a foundation he says was never what it claimed to be."
Beside me, Mia had gone very still.
"He's talking about the Warden bond," she said finally. "He's going to tell the pack the bond between us isn't a mate bond at all. That it's inherited. Assigned. A duty passed down your bloodline instead of something the Moon Goddess chose freely."
"Can he prove that?" Selene as
