Chapter 7: The Ring

I turned my head and looked at him.

"What did you say?"

Theron smiled and nodded toward the bridge.

"Go get him up," he said. "Before he freezes. We need him in one piece."

I didn't go.

Freya did.

She ran out across the iron with her torch and her red parka, and she pulled her brother's arm over her shoulders.

He let her lift him.

He looked back at me once over her head.

Then he let his sister walk him home.

Back at the guest house, Theron poured two glasses of whiskey and handed me one.

The Ironclaw Beta stood by the door.

Theron waved him out.

"Sit," Theron said.

I didn't sit.

"Explain."

He sat down in the armchair by the fire and crossed his long legs.

"You know how marking works," he said.

I did.

Every wolf child knows.

A mate bites the place where the neck meets the shoulder, and after that, the two of them can hear each other's thoughts.

"And you know what happens," Theron said, "when a marked mate says the rejection."

I knew that too.

It wasn't like what happened at the altar.

An unmarked rejection hurts.

A marked one breaks the wolf on the other side.

For a full turn of the moon, the rejected wolf can barely shift, can barely stand.

"He'll be broken for a month," Theron said. "And on the Wolf Moon, with the whole Council watching, I'll challenge him for Ashenveil."

He swirled his whiskey.

"He won't be able to fight a pup."

"The Hollow Valley," I said.

"Is a good story for the Council. I don't want a valley, Selene. I want the pack."

I set my glass down.

"You told me five years ago I'd get the day I walked back in."

"You got it." He spread his hands. "You saw him on his knees. Twice in two days. Didn't you like it?"

I didn't answer.

"He walked you to that bridge to die," Theron said quietly. "I'm offering you the rest of it. Let him mark you. Then say the words."

I thought about the slippers.

I thought about the silver moons I'd stitched on the toes, soaked through by the first mile.

I thought about the warriors talking about hockey behind me.

"Fine," I said.

Theron lifted his glass to me.