“It’s a warning. Don’t drink from the cup.”
He grabbed my wrist. Both our marks burned, and he hissed through his teeth.
“Why does it still hurt?” he whispered.
“Because you lied to the moon. It knows.”
“Garrett raised me after my father died. He’s been loyal for twenty years.”
“Then he knows exactly what you’ll drink.”
He let go. But he didn’t leave for a long time.
The council voted on my banishment a week later. Garrett ran the meeting.
“She makes predictions,” he said. “Hunters plant spies who know too much.”
“Then here’s one,” I said. “Tonight the old oak falls across the north road. Nobody gets hurt. Remember I said it.”
They laughed.
At midnight, lightning split the sky. The old oak came down across the north road.
From my window, I saw Callum standing in the rain, staring at my cabin.
He almost came to my door.
He didn’t.
The full moon rose on the wedding. Garrett poured the cup from the red-handled pitcher. Delia handed it to Callum.
I walked into the circle.
“Stop.”
“Get her out,” Garrett snapped.
I dropped my silver spoon into the cup. The pack watched it turn black from the tip up.
“Wolfsbane,” someone gasped.
“She did it!” Garrett shouted. “She’s been brewing herbs for a month!”
I unfolded the page. “Then read this, Callum. You wrote it.”
His hands shook as he read out loud.
“Garrett poured. Delia handed me the cup. I won’t see morning. I rejected the only woman the moon ever chose for me. The night the old oak fell, I almost went to her door. Wren, if the well is real, come back.”
He looked up. “That’s my handwriting.”
“I’ve read it every night for twenty years,” I said. “So I came back.”
“Baby, she forged it,” Delia said fast. “Anyone could—”
“Nobody knew about that door,” Callum said quietly. “Nobody but me.”
Garrett shifted mid-step. He went for Callum’s throat.
It ended fast. When it was over, Callum’s arm was torn open and Garrett was pinned in the dirt, stripped of his rank by the pack’s own law.
Callum walked to me, bleeding, and knelt.
“Pack law says a rejected bond can be reclaimed. If the alpha bleeds for her before moonset, and she says yes.” His voice cracked. “I bled. I’m asking. In front of everyone, the way I hurt you.”
“Next time Garrett’s kind comes whispering?”
“I’ll listen to you first. Always.”
“Yes,” I said.
The mark on my wrist cooled, then glowed solid gold.
“Callum, the wedding,” Delia begged. “My father—”
“Your father leaves Silver Hollow by dawn,” Callum said. “The land stays with the pack. You can go with him.”
Delia looked around the circle. Not one wolf would meet her eyes.
I’d given up forty years and a whole world to get here.
Callum laced his bloody fingers through mine. “Stay.”
“I already did.”
For the first time in two lifetimes, the moon set and nothing burned.
The end · Your turn
He rejected her in front of everyone, then bled for her. Should Wren have said yes, or walked away?
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