The year our bond burned brightest.
The Alpha Heir of the Ironcrest Pack, famed across every territory.
He knelt before me at the river's edge beneath a full moon, surrounded by nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine blood-red roses, and asked me to be his mate.
But ten years passed, and I still never received a bonding ceremony.
I had grown used to tossing aside the gossip scrolls about Kael Ironcrest's latest indiscretions.
Yet this time, the headline caught my eye: "Alpha Heir Pays Fortune to Claim Omega Dancer's First Heat."
For once, I did not argue. I did not rage.
That night, I let his greatest rival take me to bed.
The next day, I went to Kael to end things between us.
He lounged with his new favorite draped across him, not even lifting his gaze. "What's this? Some wild rogue couldn't satisfy you, so you've come crawling back to throw a tantrum at me?"
He squeezed the woman's waist, a low laugh rumbling in his chest.
"But I'm rather occupied, intended mate."
"Perhaps you should wait your turn?"
I looked at him and could not understand how a person could change so completely.
"Kael Ironcrest."
My voice stayed level. "I honored the late Alpha Patriarch's final wish and watched over you for ten years."
"Today, that obligation ends."
——
Kael's hand stilled for just a heartbeat.
Then he smiled. "Be good. If you want to make a scene, do it back at the den."
"You know threats don't work on me."
His fingers moved to the silk ties of the woman's dress, his gaze sliding toward me.
"Or would you rather stay and watch?"
I stood motionless.
The woman pouted prettily. "Alpha, she's so unpleasant."
Her eyes swept down to the leather guards strapped around my calves, then traveled slowly upward.
"Dressed like neither proper female nor male, hands rougher than the servants who scrub the Moonlit Den's floors, no softness, no grace—and old enough to be my mother. How could the Alpha Heir ever want someone like her?"
I glanced down at my own hands without meaning to.
They were rough, it was true.
The calluses at the base of my thumb came from training Kael's warriors, from years of gripping silver-loaded pistols and honing blades.
Once, he had kissed those calluses with aching tenderness in his eyes.
He had whispered words that made my heart race.
Now the calluses had grown thicker, but his tenderness had worn thin.
"Jealous?" Kael pinched the woman's cheek with indulgent affection. "She is my intended mate, after all. I have to show her some respect."
Then he leaned close to her ear and murmured, "But how could an old she-wolf ever compare to you? Ignore her."
I stood where I was.
His words grew legs and crawled into my ears, stabbing at something deep inside.
Old she-wolf.
I was thirty-three.
Compared to Kael, barely past his second decade, I was no longer young.
The elite circles of the pack territories had long speculated. They said Kael had refused to complete our bond for ten years because my age disgusted him.
They even joked that I was his "mother-mate."
But no one dared speak such words in Kael's presence.
Once, a celebrated Omega singer at a gathering had merely hinted at it.
Kael ordered her stripped of pack protection and driven from Ironcrest territory entirely.
He had cradled my face in his palms, eyes full of devotion. "In my heart, you will always be a young she-wolf."
"It's my fault I was born too late to catch up with you."
"If anyone ever calls you old again, I'll tear out her tongue and have her lashed a hundred times before the pack to avenge you."
Back then, I never imagined "old she-wolf" would fall from his own lips.
I blinked, forcing down the bitter sting.
Selene Frostveil turned and settled onto his lap.
"I don't care—make her leave!"
"Having her here makes me miserable..."
Kael gripped her chin and kissed her hard.
The silk ties of her dress came undone, revealing soft curves beneath.
I turned my face away.
Warm amber light from the setting sun filtered through the latticed windows.
It made me lose myself for a moment.
Seventeen years ago, the sky had glowed just like this at dusk.
The old Alpha Patriarch had led me through the gates of the Alpha Court.
He had looked at me and said, "This pup—from now on, I'm trusting you to shape him."
