His Loyalty Test Became My Pack's Funeral novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Oath

On the island shrine Willa sets her terms and speaks the mating oath before both shores. The mark on her wrist burns gold.

The words hit me harder than the white flag had.

"Then who is he?" I said, and pointed back across the water at the rider in green.

The rider had stayed in the boat with the oarsmen.

He sat very still, with his hood pulled low.

Corvin's warriors drifted down the shore behind him, two dozen of them, hands on their hilts.

"No rider of mine," Corvin said. "My men wear the green on the left shoulder. His is on the right."

I looked.

He was right.

My stomach turned over.

"Your Warden has believed a lie all afternoon," he went on. "Mine have sat at the ford for six days waiting for orders to cross. I have never marched on Moonwatch."

"Then why would anyone..."

"I'd like to know that too."

He said it flatly, and did not look away from the boat.

The whole city was still watching from the dock, a long dark line against the evening.

The Warden had the written terms in her hand, waiting for me to come back with a sealed answer.

I understood what he saw at the same time I did.

"If I go home now," I said, "the Warden says you broke your word."

"And Moonwatch fires on my ford at dawn," Corvin said. "I'd lose two hundred men and your city would lose its walls."

"So I speak the oath."

"So you speak it, and I find out who put you in that boat." He folded his arms. "I'd rather you refused."

"You don't get to rather."

For the first time something moved in his face. It might have been respect.

"Say your terms, then."

I had been counting them since the dock.

"Moonwatch spared, in ink, under your seal and the Warden's."

"Done."

"The one hundred and thirty-seven people I brought across the river are under my protection and nobody lays a hand on them. Not your warriors, not you."

"Done."

"And I decide whether I share your bed." My voice stayed steady. "Oath or no oath, nobody takes me. You wait until I say."

His eyes went over my face slowly.

"Whoever you think I am," he said, "that is not what I do."

"I don't know what you do," I said. "I know you've been killing my pack for a year."

"Yes," Corvin said. "I have."

He did not say sorry.

I liked that more than I wanted to.

A shrine keeper in a grey robe brought out a length of red cord.

The keeper tied it around my right wrist and Corvin's left, over the burn scar on the back of Corvin's hand.

His skin was warm.

My pulse jumped against the cord and I hated it.

The keeper told us to say the words together, to the shore, in front of the river.

Corvin spoke first.

"I take this woman as my mate and swear to defend her people as my own."

His voice carried across the water.

On the dock, a thousand people went silent.

I said mine so quietly the keeper had to lean in.

"I take this man as my mate and swear to hold his people as mine."

I lied the whole way through.

The last word was still in my mouth when the cord went tight.

Heat ran up the inside of my wrist, sharp and sudden.

I gasped and pulled.

The cord burned away to ash.

Under it, a mark was glowing gold on my skin.

It was shaped like a wolf's paw ringed by a crescent moon.

Corvin's left hand had the same mark, over his scar.

The keeper dropped to both knees.

"Fated," the old man whispered. "The Moon has named you."

Corvin stared at his wrist.

He did not look pleased.

He looked at the mark the way he had looked at the rider, with his jaw tight.

"I don't understand," I said. "What is it?"

"A fated mark." His voice came out rough. "It shows only when two wolves who were born for each other say the oath and mean the bond, even if they don't know it."

"I didn't mean anything."

"Your body did."

Behind us the rider in the boat had lifted his head.

He was smiling.

He tipped two fingers to his hood, and then he pushed off from the landing with an oar and the boat slid back into the fog.

Corvin's men ran for the water and shouted.

Corvin did not move.

His eyes were on me, and on the glowing mark, and on something far behind both of us.

"Fated mates are not an accident, Willa Garnet," he said, low. "Somebody knew. Somebody aimed you at me."

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend