After two years away studying in distant lands, I had cut my time short, my heart eager to return to Solaria and the life I thought awaited me—marriage to him.
While arranging the furnishings of the home we had long dreamed of, my hands froze over a hidden chest. Inside were countless parchments—travel permits, meticulously kept, each marked with the seal of Lunaria. Kyle Blackthorne, my mate of ten years, had been journeying there every month, and it was never for me. Not once, even when I was only a day’s ride from his destination.
The night I had chosen to meet him at the grove where he intended to claim me as his mate, I arrived early, only to find him kneeling before another.
“Selindra Moonshire,” he intoned, voice steady and eyes alight, “will you accept me as your mate? Speak your answer, and I shall abandon all else at once.”
The anticipation in his gaze pinned me to the spot. My paws—or rather, my legs—would not carry me closer. If I was not the one he desired to bind his life with, then perhaps it was best that they claimed this union.
Yet, when I fled into the moonlit forests, he crossed seas and mountains, the call of our bond compelling him to hunt the world over for me.
The grove shimmered under the glow of enchanted lanterns, roses spiraling around every post, the air thick with the scent of night-blooming petals. Kyle, on one knee, mirrored the countless visions I had cherished of our proposal. But the figure standing before him was not me.
“Selindra, will you mate with me?”
She trembled, one hand shielding her lips, the other accepting the cluster of roses he offered. A moonstone ring glinted as he slid it onto her finger, the circle sealing their bond. Their bodies pressed together, whispers of devotion carried by the wind to my ears.
I found my own hand tracing the moonstone Kyle had sent me from across the sea. I had never told him it was too loose. To prevent it from slipping, I had wrapped a strand of crimson thread around it, binding it to my finger. Perhaps, after all this time, when I tugged at it in longing, the thread unraveled. The ring slipped free and rolled away into the shadows, just as Kyle, after two long years abroad, had freed himself from me.
An ill-fitting ring, I thought bitterly, need not be reclaimed, just as a mate who never loved me need not be held.
“Kyle, may your union unfold as planned,” I murmured.
“Why? The only one I desire is you!” he cried across the distance.
“Because… I intend to crash your ceremony! Only then will it prove your heart belongs to me alone!”
I faltered. Curiosity, sharp as a fang, drove me to see how far he would go to spite Selindra.
“You cunning fool, only you could devise such a scheme!” he laughed.
“I’d better prepare a second pair of boots, so I can outrun you when we flee together!”
“Do you truly intend to do this to Sandra?”
“Marrying her to honor my promise is already the furthest I can go. If she cannot prevent her mate from being claimed at the altar, she cannot fault me.”
Their laughter, full and reckless, pierced my chest like icy claws. I stumbled, pressed my back to a tree, legs trembling, unable to move. Fearing that my sobs might alert them, I pressed my hand to my mouth and retreated. Yet halfway through the forest path, my strength failed, and I collapsed into the underbrush.
Home offered little solace. I dialed my mentor, my voice tight with emotion.
“Professor, I will join the research expedition you spoke of,” I said, each word a struggle against the sting of my bruised knees.
My advisor’s voice softened with concern and curiosity. “I thought you intended to settle in Solaria after the bonding ceremony. Has your mate agreed to long-distance? You know the strain of separation. Are you certain you do not wish to reconsider?”
“The ceremony is ended. From this moment, I devote myself entirely to our work,” I said, pressing my hands to the scrapes and bruises, feeling each pulse of pain.
He, who had always treated me as a daughter of the pack, sensed the unrest immediately. “I will place your name on today’s roster. Return soon; the work will keep your mind from dwelling on what cannot be undone. Remember, it is not the duty of a loyal heart to chase those who do not value it.”
If not for the towering pile of travel permits, I might have dismissed his words: he does not love you as you believed. But the truth lay bare. Each month, Kyle had crossed vast lands to be with Selindra, while my brief encounters after tiresome journeys had been the rarest joys of my life.
As I made my way to the grove, I tried to imagine his travels had been for duty or work. But seeing him claim Selindra—the very one who had haunted my childhood—proved the truth. Selindra had barred him from me, leaving him to weave stories of longing and sorrow to veil the reality of his devotion. He knew full well the animosity between us, yet allowed me to be humiliated in their union to satisfy her.
I sank into the warmth of a bath, letting it still the tremors that shook my frame, when a summons reached me:
“Sandra,” his voice called across the distance, carrying the resonance of our mindlink. “Where are you? The moon rises over the seaside grove!”
