Chapter 3

"Wren, where are you?"

Rhett's face filled the screen, flushed under the war-room's firelight.

"The whole pack's waiting to toast. You get slower every year, I swear—"

Sienna leaned into frame. His flannel hung off her shoulder. His shirt. The one I'd bought him.

"If Wren doesn't want to come... is it because of me?" Her eyes went glassy, right on cue. "Maybe I should just go."

Three male voices fell over each other.

"No way. You're the best thing that's happened to this pack."

"Wren gets territorial whenever a she-wolf gets near Rhett. We're used to it."

Rhett's face changed. He caught Sienna's wrist.

"Sit down. You're not going anywhere."

Then back to me, cold as river ice:

"I don't know what your problem is. Don't come, then. We're not waiting."

He hung up before I could say a word.

I stared at my reflection in the black screen.

Then I blocked him.

First time in eighteen years.

Ten minutes later, a text from an unknown number:

[Blocking your future Alpha? Bold. I'll be at your door.]

I blocked that too.

The next morning was the Council witness gathering at the training grounds. Last oaths. Last checks. The moon-ledger closed at midnight.

I got there late.

Sienna was sitting on my log. My log. The end of the bench beside Rhett where I'd wrapped my wrists every morning for eighteen years. She saw me and didn't move an inch. She just tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled with her eyes.

Rhett stared straight ahead, jaw tight. Waiting for me to come apologize.

I climbed to the top of the ridge and sat beside Juno, my best friend and the only she-wolf alive who swears like a drunk sailor.

She took one look at my face and growled. "Who do I have to bite."

"Nobody. Yet."

The Council envoy droned for nine minutes. Seal your oaths by midnight. This choice binds your blood for the Trials.

Then two knocks on the top of my head.

"Wren. Outside. Now."

I didn't look up.

Rhett grabbed my shoulder and spun me around.

"What is this? The silent treatment? It's a Trials year. Isn't this embarrassing for you?"

"It is," I said. "So stop trying to make up with me."

His eye twitched, the way it always does.

"Fine. Sulk. Just don't come howling at my window tonight."

I turned back to Juno.

And then he did the thing that almost broke me.

He crouched in front of me, cupped my face in both hands, and made me look at him. His voice dropped. Gentle. The voice from a thousand dawns in the snow.

"Wren. Listen. Tonight's the deadline. Read the ledger. Really read it. Don't make a mistake with something this big."

His thumb brushed my cheekbone.

He was so sure. So tenderly, completely sure I'd see Sienna's name, cry, and quietly swear myself into the shadows. His Second. His spare. His girl on the ridge.

He would rather steer me than tell me.

"Rhett?" Sienna appeared at his elbow. "My oath parchment won't take the blood. Can you look?"

He stood instantly.

But first he tapped my nose. The old gesture that used to mean we're fine.

"Read the ledger, Wren. Promise me."

"Sure," I said.

He walked away with her.

I took out my phone and texted a number with a Northern code.

[Is the offer still open?]

Three dots. Instantly. Like he'd been holding the phone for twelve years.

[Midnight, Elara's daughter. Not one minute later. And bring her cloak. Kael has already refused eleven other she-wolves. He was waiting for you.]