Chapter 4

Rowan was already thirty minutes late for our bonding ceremony, and the priest had sent someone to find him three times.

My phone lit up on the dressing table.

[Your request to leave Blood Moon Pack has been approved. Your mental link to the pack will now be severed.]

Pain tore through my chest as the connection broke. I gripped the edge of the table and waited for the hollow ache to subside.

I had submitted the request after the Full Moon Celebration a week earlier. Now the only thing still binding Rowan and me was a bonding ceremony that had yet to begin.

The door opened, and Celine walked into the room wearing her attendant’s gown. A healer’s support wrap was still fastened around her waist.

“You’re still waiting for him?”

She stopped beside my ceremonial gown and ran her fingers over the gold fabric.

“Rowan and I grew up together. I was with him during his first shift. Do you really think six years with him can replace everything we shared?”

I turned my phone facedown on the table.

“Are you finished?”

Celine stepped closer and lowered her voice.

“You saw him waiting in line for me at the Full Moon Celebration, didn’t you? Twenty minutes, and he never complained once.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“The entire pack is sitting outside, along with representatives from every allied pack. But if I tell him I’m in pain, he’ll still make all of them wait with you.”

Rowan’s footsteps sounded in the corridor, growing louder as he approached the dressing room.

Celine waited until his shadow appeared beneath the door, then deliberately stepped backward into the corner of the table and collapsed, clutching her lower back as if the pain had struck without warning.

Rowan rushed through the door and immediately knelt beside her.

“Is it your old injury?”

Celine gripped the front of his formal jacket and shook her head with difficulty.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to delay your ceremony.”

“Don’t talk. I’m taking you to the healer.”

The priest reached the doorway and blocked Rowan’s path.

“Alpha, the healer is in the east chamber. An attendant can take her. Your guests have already been waiting for half an hour.”

“Then they can keep waiting.”

Rowan’s voice carried through the open door, silencing the conversations in the temple beyond.

Only then did he look at me.

“Elara, explain the delay to the guests. I’ll come back as soon as the healer finishes examining Celine.”

Pack members were watching from the corridor, waiting for me to manage the trouble he had left behind, just as I had for the past six years.

“All right. Go.”

Rowan hesitated, apparently surprised that I had agreed so easily.

“I’ll be back in thirty minutes.”

Celine slipped her arms around his neck and watched me over his shoulder as he carried her toward the east chamber.

Someone in the corridor released a relieved breath.

“Elara understands the Alpha better than anyone.”

“Rowan has never waited for anybody. She’s the only person patient enough to accommodate him.”

Rowan’s grandmother took my hand.

“Put on your bonding gown. The ceremony can begin as soon as Rowan returns.”

I looked at the gold dress hanging beside the mirror.

Six years ago, Rowan had placed an engagement ring on my finger and promised that I would become the happiest Luna the Blood Moon Pack had ever known.

Today, he had entered the dressing room where I was supposed to become his mate, yet he had not looked at me long enough to notice that I was still wearing the plain dress in which I had arrived.

I picked up the wooden box I had prepared and walked toward the center of the Moon Temple. His grandmother followed me, calling out that I was heading away from the dressing room, but I kept walking.

The guests turned to watch as I placed the box on the altar meant to hold our bonding tokens. When I lifted the lid, the moonstone pendant, my engagement ring, and the gifts Rowan had given me over the past six years lay inside.

A council member in the front row rose from his seat.

“Elara, what are you doing?”

“I’m returning everything Rowan gave me.”

His grandmother hurried forward and reached for the lid.

“Whatever is wrong, wait until he comes back. Don’t make a decision in front of all these guests.”

I kept one hand on the box.

“He was willing to walk away from me in front of everyone. I have the same right to end this in front of them.”

Silence spread through the temple.

“Today’s bonding ceremony is canceled. My request to leave the pack has already been approved. As of this morning, I am no longer a member of Blood Moon Pack.”

His grandmother closed her hand around my wrist.

“At least wait for Rowan to return. You’ve been together for six years.”

“I’ve spent enough of those six years waiting.”

Her grip slowly loosened.

I removed the final ring from my finger and placed it inside the box.

My phone vibrated again. Rowan had sent me a message.

My phone vibrated again.

[Wait a little longer. Celine is still too upset for me to leave.]

After six years, Rowan still assumed I would be waiting whenever he returned.

I typed one final reply.

[You don’t need to come back.]

Then I blocked his number and walked out of the Moon Temple.

One hour later, Rowan returned alone.

He stared at the empty ceremony hall.

“Where is everyone? Where is Elara?”

His grandmother walked toward him with her cane and slapped him across the face.