Chapter 9: The Vow

Ansel's POV

We had spent the whole day on the coast, because neither of us could stand to end it.

By the time it was dark, I was walking her up the stairs to her door with my coat still on her shoulders.

Her mouth was swollen from mine.

I could taste salt on my own lip.

She turned at the door and looked up at me with sand in her hair.

I knew I would say it now.

I had practiced it for eight years.

On the ridge, in the shower, on the long drives to the Council house.

In the dark of my own bed, with her scent still in the hall downstairs.

You are my mate.

Four words, and I had never once been able to get them out.

"Freja," I said.

"Yes?"

"I need to tell you something. It's about why I couldn't..."

The vow closed around my throat.

It was old and I had made it myself, kneeling by my father's bed at twenty-one.

An Alpha never names a mate to her.

She comes to him by her own choice, unprompted, or the bond sours in her and the wolf is lost.

My father had watched it happen to his brother.

He made me swear on his dying breath.

I felt the oath tighten, hot as a wire, until I couldn't swallow.

"Ansel?" she said, frowning. "You've gone grey."

I put one hand on the doorframe.

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