“I’ve decided to return home and take a mate,” I told Jace through the mindlink, keeping my voice steady even though my wolf stirred uneasily beneath my skin.
There was a brief pause before his relief flowed through the bond like a softened current. “That is good news,” he answered at last. “You have been in the western territories for three years now. Mother and Father had begun to believe you intended to remain there indefinitely. It is time you came back to your own pack.”
Three years.
The words settled heavily in my chest as my gaze drifted to the window, where the pale light of the moon filtered through the foreign skies of Paris. I had left my homeland under the blessing of my parents, sent to study the craft of weaving and design for our family’s lineage of moon-thread garments. I was the eldest daughter of a respected house, raised with the expectation of duty, heritage, and eventually, a chosen mate who would strengthen our bloodline.
But I had not truly left for studies alone.
I had followed Lucan.
Jace’s closest companion. His trusted ally in business and war-training alike. The golden warrior of our generation, admired by many within the pack. No one, not even Jace, knew that beneath the guise of friendship, Lucan and I had been bound in secrecy for years. Stolen moments beneath the moonstone grove, whispered vows carried only through the mindlink, and a bond that was never spoken aloud in daylight.
He had insisted on secrecy, saying the timing was not yet right, that revealing us would fracture alliances within Jace’s circle and disturb the fragile balance between our houses. And I, foolish in my devotion, had believed him. I had convinced myself that hidden love was still love, that what we shared in silence would one day be honored before the Moon Goddess herself.
Jace spoke again, drawing me back. “Do not trouble yourself. The mate chosen by Mother and Father is of strong blood and honorable standing. You will not lack for anything in his care.”
He hesitated only briefly before continuing, almost casually, “You should also call upon Lucan before you return. He is still within Paris’ western grounds. He used to treat you as a younger sister; it would be fitting for him to attend your joining ceremony. Though I have not felt his presence clearly through the mindlink these past days. He has been difficult to reach.”
A faint unease tightened around my heart at those words.
Difficult to reach.
Of course he had been.
It began when Ellie returned to the territory.
Ellie, his first bond. The one the elders once believed the Moon Goddess had marked for him before fate shifted its path.
My fingers tightened slightly around the edge of the table as I forced the words out. “He may not be present for the ceremony…”
“What ceremony?”
The voice came not from the mindlink, but from the doorway.
Lucan.
I severed the connection with Jace at once, my pulse spiking as I turned. He entered as though nothing in the world had changed, as though the sight I had witnessed yesterday beneath the silver-lit trees had never carved itself into my memory. Ellie standing close to him in the sacred park, her hands on his face, his lips meeting hers as if the rest of the world had ceased to exist.
As if I had never been there at all.
“Who is being joined in union?” he asked again, his tone light, his arm slipping around my shoulders with practiced ease, as though I were still something certain in his life.
I leaned into him just enough to hide the fracture inside me. “A friend,” I said quietly, forcing a small smile. “It is nothing important.”
He exhaled a soft laugh, brushing his lips against my temple in a gesture that once made my heart quicken. “You should wear the indigo gown,” he murmured. “The one you wore beneath the moonstone altar last winter. You looked as though the Goddess herself had chosen you.”
A hollow sound almost escaped me, but I swallowed it down.
“Perhaps,” I replied instead.
He released me and settled into the chamber as though he belonged there without question, as though the world outside our shared illusion did not exist. His attention drifted to the small carved stone beside the hearth, his fingers already reaching for the cup I had been holding moments before, stealing from it with familiar ease, as if my space was still his to occupy.
“I am famished,” he said after a while, looking at me with that effortless smile that once softened every doubt I had ever held.
Without thinking, I moved to prepare food for him. Habit guided my hands more than thought ever could.
He followed as he always did, leaning against the stone counter, watching, taking what he pleased—sips from my cup, pieces of bread before I had finished arranging them, small touches that once felt like affection and now felt like something far more distant.
I placed a full plate before him. He smiled as though nothing in the world had ever weighed on him, as though I had not already begun to unravel beneath the surface.
“You spoil me,” he said between bites. “How did I earn such fortune?”
I did not answer.
I only stood there, offering him a smile I no longer felt.
But inside me, something had already made its decision beneath the watch of the Moon Goddess.
Eat well, Lucan.
For soon, you will no longer find me where you expect.
