Chapter 23: The Full Moon

The midsummer full moon came up over Lantern Lake huge and white.

I had asked Ronan to meet me at the cedar at dusk, and I had told him nothing else.

He came down the path with his hands empty.

He wore the plain gray shirt I liked, and he stopped a few feet from me.

The sapling had put out new growth since June, soft green at the tips.

"It's doing well," he said.

"Hazel waters it when I forget."

"Ivy, why am I here?"

I had practiced the speech all week.

I had decided to say it plainly.

He had never once asked me for anything, and I wanted to be the one who asked.

"Last autumn I cut the bond because I wanted to know if I was a person without it," I said. "I am."

"I know you are."

"I also know that I want you. Not the bond, and not the debt. You, with the thermos and the cards."

His face went still.

"I'm not asking you to be my Alpha," I said. "I'm asking you to be mine."

"There's an old way," he said slowly. "Older than the bond."

"A mark. I've read about it."

"You choose it. You give it. It doesn't bind anyone unless both agree, and either of you can close it."

"Can I close it from my side?"

"Anytime. That's the point."

I stepped closer.

"Then that's what I want," I said.

He did not move.

"Ivy, you don't have to give me anything. I'll keep showing up."

"I know," I said. "That's why I'm giving it."

I took his shirt in both fists and kissed him.

His arms came around me at once.

I pushed his shirt up his chest and over his head, and dropped it in the grass.

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