Chapter 23: Terms

I stood in front of three hundred people, and nobody had ever asked me what I wanted.

"Terms," I said.

The old man bowed his head. "Whenever you are ready, Luna."

"One," I said. "The Ashworth name goes back on the pack's roll, with all forty-one names."

"We cut them in stone on the hill behind this house, and the pack tends the grave."

A murmur ran through the hall. Nobody said no.

"Two. Nobody in this pack is ever again 'refused' for being unmarked, or small, or without a family. The seven-day law is gone."

Dane whooped from the back, and someone shushed him.

"Three. The Kincaid Sentinel Group keeps its floor in my name. A night-shift office, my hours, my door."

Tiernan's mouth twitched.

"Four. I can quit any day. Of anything."

"Stevie..." he said.

"Anything," I said. "Including this. And I'm telling you in front of everyone so you hear that I'm choosing to stay."

His eyes closed.

When they opened again, he looked at the hall.

"Accepted," Tiernan said. "Every word."

The old man pressed the alpha's ring into my palm, and I slid it onto Tiernan's finger myself.

Then three hundred voices said it all at once.

"Luna."

I ducked my head and tried not to cry in front of the entire pack, and failed.

We made it upstairs while the hall was still pouring the first toast.

Tiernan shut the bedroom door behind us.

I put my hand flat on it.

"Open or closed?" he said.

"Closed. For now, I choose closed."

I turned the lock.

He was already looking at me with his whole face open.

"Come here, Luna," he said roughly.

"Don't call me that in here."

"What should I call you?"

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