On the day of my Mating Ceremony, I, the intended Omega, made my way to my own ceremony grove alone, riding a lone cross-territory run while the pack fleet went on without me.
When the procession came to fetch the intended, my Alpha heir stopped me before the lead carriage.
"Seraphine Duskvane is riding in this one. I'll arrange a separate run for you."
I froze on the spot.
Kael Ashmore went on:
"Seraphine's against the whole idea of bonding. She wants to know what it feels like to be claimed."
"I already agreed. She'll be the one walking into the grove during the entrance rite."
I turned my head, and there was Seraphine, his childhood packmate, already draped in ceremony white and settled into the lead carriage.
Seeing me on the verge of tears, Kael sighed and offered comfort.
"The ceremony's just a formality. As long as the bond-mark's set, we're good."
"Besides, once Seraphine's had her turn, you can still walk into the grove again."
With that, he didn't so much as glance back, sweeping off with the whole pack procession thundering behind him, hooves and engines and dust rising in the dawn.
I closed my eyes for a moment.
It had been like this since we started preparing the ceremony.
All because Seraphine was against bonding, and would never have a Mating Ceremony of her own.
So she got to wear the ceremony white first. She got to choose the grove.
And now, even the ceremony itself, she got to experience first.
Somewhere deep beneath my ribs, my wolf lifted her head and let out a low, uneasy sound. Something about Seraphine's scent had never sat right with her, that cloying jasmine with the sour edge underneath, and now she paced, hackles half-raised, wanting to snarl and finding no room for it.
The signal light at the crossing turned red, and the fleet surged forward, leaving my single run far behind.
The driver, hands steady on the wheel of the obsidian carriage, called back over his shoulder:
"Miss, which way do we go from here?"
I looked at the procession, its tail already vanished past the tree line, and gave the driver a small smile.
"We're not going. Turn around."
Whether it was the ceremony or the male, I didn't want anything another she-wolf had already worn first.
……
The words landed in the quiet as the carriage's low hum shifted pitch.
The air went still for a few seconds.
The driver blinked, leaned back a little, and raised his voice a notch.
"What'd you say, miss? Turn around?"
I ran my fingers over the ceremony gown I was wearing.
I opened my crystal communicator. There on the lock face, our claiming portrait, me and Kael smiling like the two most blessed wolves under the Moon Goddess.
The scattered talk of passing wolves drifted in through the cracked window.
"Did you see that? That procession just now was something else. Storm-hawks overhead, a dozen carriages, the whole Ashmore line out in force."
"They say the grander the procession, the more the Moon Goddess favors the intended. That Alpha heir must love her so much."
My fingers paused, so slightly it was almost invisible.
Another voice sighed.
"Same blood, different fates, I'm telling you. I just came past the Southbay grove, and I even saw an intended making her way to her own ceremony on a lone run, no procession, nothing."
"No…"
The screen went dark, the hem of my gown crumpling between my fingers.
I swallowed down the ache in my throat and said it again.
"Yes, sir."
"Back to the hotel. I'm not accepting the bond."
The crossing light finished its count, red turning to green.
Behind us came the impatient blare of horns.
The driver closed the mouth that had been about to say something more, spun the wheel fast, and swung the carriage around.
As the carriage settled into a smooth drive, a mind-link sending came through from Kael.
【I'm the one who had the procession leave you behind on purpose. Don't chase after us.】
【Tell the driver to slow down. Don't cross paths with Seraphine when you reach the grove, she doesn't like anyone stealing her light.】
【And when you get there, come in through the back by the feast-kitchen. Seraphine's sensitive about how things look, and if wolves see you and her entering the same ceremony grove and start talking, it'll be hard for her to explain.】
It was rare for Kael to send me a sending this long.
From appearances to the finest detail, every single word had Seraphine's interests folded into it.
Yet just a short while ago, when I'd been drawn off the lead carriage and set apart in front of the whole pack,
he'd never once considered whether wolves would talk about me, whether I'd lose standing.
My wolf went very quiet then, that low keening sound dropping into something colder, something that had stopped hoping.
I opened the sending panel and typed, one character at a time.
【I'm not bonding with you. Do whatever you want.】
Just as I was about to send it, sendings began exploding across the top of my screen.
