Chapter 18: The Hunter's Moon

The Gathering filled the cedar ring until there was no room left between the trunks.

Torchlight and lantern light and the red moon all fell into the Moonwell at once.

The six Council Alphas stood on the far side of the rim.

Dillon stood with his mother.

Ansel stood alone, a little apart, with his hands in his jacket pockets.

Tilly stopped at the top of the stone steps.

Up close, her dress was the one Mom had married in.

I knew it from the photo on the stairs.

She looked down at Wylie standing waist-deep in the water, and she smiled.

"Hello again," she said.

Wylie said nothing.

The white-bearded Alpha lifted his hand.

"Tilly Pellam. Speak your word."

Tilly lifted her chin to the moon.

"Five years ago I rejected my fated mate. Under the Hunter's Moon, I take back my word. Wylie Caine, I accept you."

The moonlight on the water flared white.

Wylie's whole body jerked.

He doubled over in the pool with both hands pressed to his chest.

A sound came out of him I'd only heard once, on the night his heart stopped.

Arlene grabbed my arm.

I didn't move.

I'd promised him I wouldn't.

Tilly came down one step, so the water touched her hem.

"See?" she said softly. "It's easier if you don't fight it."

Wylie's head came up.

His eyes were amber, burning, wet.

He straightened one inch at a time, the water pouring off his shoulders.

Then he stood at his full height in the middle of the Moonwell.

"Tilly Pellam," he said.

His voice was hoarse.

It carried to the last torch on the hill.

"You laughed at me through a hedge and left me in the dark for five years. I reject you."

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