The Rejected Mate novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Asking

They held it at dusk, because Caelen had said the Moon should be there to see.

Two packs stood in a ring around the Stone, Ironwood on one side and Stormvale on the other.

The lanterns were already lit.

Willa walked up the track on Kirk's arm, in the green bakery dress, and no one had told her to.

The last time she had walked into this clearing she had been alone.

Her parents stood at the edge of the ring.

Her father gave her one small nod, and her mother wept openly, and Willa let them.

Caelen waited in front of the Stone with his bad arm out of its sling and his shirt open at the collar.

He looked scared to death.

"You said I could say no," Willa said, when she stopped in front of him.

"You can."

"In front of everyone."

"In front of everyone," said Caelen.

"Then ask."

He knelt.

There was a hush so deep that she could hear the lanterns hiss.

The Alpha of Ironwood went down on both knees on the cold grass.

It was the very spot where he had stood and rejected her.

He untied the braided cord from his wrist.

He held it up in his open palm, in the lantern light.

"This is the cord my father tied on me," he said. "I wore it as his son. I don't want it anymore."

"I'm giving it to you, because it's the only thing I have that was ever mine to give."

"At this Stone I said I released you. It was not true then, and I want to say the true thing in the same place."

His voice shook, and he let it.

"Willa Ashdown, I choose you. I chose you the first night, and I've chosen you every hour since, and I'll choose you at eighty."

"I'm asking you to be my mate and my Luna, by your own free word."

"If your answer is no, I'll stand up and say so to the pack. Then I'll wait at your border until I die."

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