You Are Not Rejecting Me novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Rejection Moon

The moon came up full and white over the gathering ground, and the torches went out one by one.

Nobody needed them.

The ring was larger than before.

The pack had come from the ridge and from town, and from Pinewood too, because word had gone around.

The line down the lawn at the lodge had followed them here.

Cadell's people stood on the left.

Owain's stood on the right, with their arms folded.

A great many people stood in the middle, and I could not tell which way they leaned.

Idris stood next to me with his hand around mine.

The bond mark on my shoulder had been warm since sundown.

"Ready?" he said.

"No."

"Good. Neither am I."

Cadell stepped into the center of the ring in a clean shirt, with Marigold's bandage still white across his scalp.

He looked old and tired, and he looked like an Alpha.

Owain walked in from the other side, smiling.

He wore the silver pin again.

Seren came behind him.

She had left the pin off her collar.

She walked to the middle of the ring and stood in front of Cadell, close, with her chin up.

The whole pack went silent.

"Say it," Owain called from across the circle, pleasantly. "It's the moon, Seren. Say it to his face, so it counts."

I thought of her voice in the dark yard.

You're doing me such a favor, sweetheart.

She had heard it, and she had been standing there with her hand on a tree.

She had not run.

Now she looked at Cadell for what felt like a very long time.

"Cadell Garland," my sister said. "I reject you as my mate."

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