Chapter 24: The Other Way Down the Aisle

"Yes," I said.

He didn't move. I felt his whole body go still against mine, and then the bond lit up so bright it made me laugh.

"Yes?"

"I said yes, Soren. Yes, in front of the whole court. Yes, in front of a duchess."

"Where?" he said, hoarsely. "Name the place. I'll have it built."

I thought about it for about one second.

"Stonebrook," I said. "In the Gathering Hall."

He pulled back and looked at me.

"Are you sure?"

"I walked out of that room alone," I said. "I want to walk into it the other way."

The wedding was in the first week of the thaw.

The Lycan court came in a fleet of black cars.

Four hundred nobles in silk stepped out into the mud of a Montana yard, and the whole pack stood on its porches and stared.

The duchess with the fan wore boots. I took that as a compliment.

I dressed in my old room, which Sydney had once turned into a sewing room.

The pack had cleared out the machines, and my father had put a vase of daisies on the sill.

A small figure stood behind me at the mirror, trying hard not to fuss.

It was the kitchen maid who had told the truth about the leaves.

"Can I do your hair, Luna?"

"Please."

She pinned it up with shaking hands. When she was done, she took a single daisy out of her apron pocket.

"I picked it this morning," she said. "I thought... if it's all right."

I looked at it in the glass for a long time.

"It's all right," I said, and she tucked it behind my ear.