Ever since I'd been added, Kael's mind-link circle, which had always been dead silent, suddenly came alive.
【Seraphine: Just a casual little Mating Ceremony today~】
A dozen crystal-captured images flooded the sending-stone in an instant.
The backdrop was the inside of the ceremony carriage. Seraphine had pulled Kael close for a whole string of intimate paired shots.
Finger hearts, cheek pressed to cheek……
My eyes lingered on the last image for a long time.
In it, Kael had laid his head in Seraphine's palm, smiling with a tenderness, an indulgence, I'd never seen.
That exact pose. When we were sitting for our claiming portraits, I'd shown him a reference of it. He'd called it sappy and childish.
The replies came pouring in.
【The two of you really are the perfect match. The pair I've been rooting for since we were pups finally happened.】
That was Kael's returned packmate.
He said he was grateful to me for healing the heartbreak Seraphine had left Kael with when she ran to the far territories, that the two of us were simply made for each other.
【If I'd known your ceremony was today I never would've skipped the gathering. I could never stand watching that plain little she-wolf swoop in while Seraphine was gone. Is there still time if I book a storm-hawk and run over now?】
That was Kael's cousin.
Kael had once asked me to carry some scent-sealed lineage records he'd left at the den.
The rain came down in sheets that day. My footing slipped on the wet ridge trail and I went down hard against a stone.
When I limped over to hand them to him, he'd nearly howled with relief, saying those records were tied to a great cross-pack alliance, that I was his lifesaver.
And then there were Kael's cousin, his den-brother, his elder from the Royal Academy……
Every single wolf in this circle. Kael had introduced me to all of them. To my face they were polished and kind, heads dipped in easy courtesy.
Behind my back, they tore me down and insulted me at will.
A plain she-wolf, a desperate clingy stray worming her way in while the den stood empty……
Kael sent one flat line.
【Don't bring her up. Just tell Seraphine how beautiful she is.】
Teeth clenched, hands shaking, I hammered out a few lines.
【Two-faced, all of you?】
【Do you people not disgust yourselves?】
The second my sending popped up, the circle went silent for two heartbeats.
The last message read:
【Oh crap. Wrong circle, everyone.】
Kael's mind-link call flared through fast and frantic, cutting off my typing.
I let it through.
No apology, no explanation. Just one word, nearly cold.
"Apologize."
The absurdity of it spread through me before I could stop it.
"Me? Apologize?"
I could have laughed from sheer rage.
"Apologize for what? For all of you cursing me behind my back? Or for building a second circle after you dragged me into this one?"
The link went quiet for a few beats.
I heard Kael give a helpless sigh, the sound coming warped and close through the bond.
"Willow, you're not a moonstone. You can't expect every wolf in the pack to like you."
"Every wolf in that circle grew up running beside me and Seraphine. You showed up out of nowhere. It's normal for some of them not to accept you. Seraphine adding you to the circle was already a lot of respect."
I tipped my head back and forced the tears down. Somewhere beneath my ribs my wolf had gone very still, ears flat, as if she too were bracing against something.
"So?"
Kael paused a beat, his voice dropping lower.
"Just apologize to the circle. Say you don't mind it."
"Seraphine……she's crying so hard right now. She feels terrible, blames herself, thinks it's all because she added you."
There was a gaping hole in my chest, cold wind howling straight through it. The faint mark at the junction of my neck and shoulder, the one that should have warmed when he called, sat cold as river-stone.
So all it took was Seraphine crying, and I was supposed to bow my head to the wolves who'd insulted me.
He seemed to say something else, but I couldn't make out the words after that.
The tears blurred everything. My voice broke as it came out.
"Kael, let's end the bond."
"I'm not going through with the Mating Ceremony. I'm not letting you mark me either."
Kael didn't answer.
Someone muffled the link on his end. Faintly, through it, came the rustle of ceremony wrappings and paper, and Seraphine's crying. Even through the bond her scent reached me, that cloying jasmine gone sour, cold iron beneath the sweetness.
And Kael's patient, gentle coaxing.
"There, there. Willow says she doesn't blame you. She's just too sensitive, that's all."
