Chapter 2

While clearing the bedside cabinet, I found an unopened bottle of fever tonic.

The label carried a date from six months earlier. By then, Talia had already become the reason for our first serious argument.

It began after midnight.

Kieran and I were in bed when our unfinished courtship bond tightened. We had not exchanged permanent marks, but I could still feel when another wolf entered his private mind-link.

Silver crossed Kieran’s eyes as he answered.

“Who is contacting you this late?”

“Talia. She told me to rest because the council meeting ended late.”

I waited for him to recognize why that sounded intimate. When he simply closed his eyes, I asked whether they often spoke after midnight.

Kieran’s patience faded.

“She coordinates pack business. One message means nothing.”

“If another male wolf entered my private link to say good night, would you accept it?”

“You should ask yourself why a harmless message makes you this angry.”

The next morning, he called a council meeting.

The chair at Kieran’s right had always remained empty. By Blackridge custom, it belonged to the future Luna.

When I entered the chamber, Talia was sitting there.

Kieran looked directly at me and continued the meeting. Talia recorded patrol reports and leaned close whenever he spoke quietly.

Afterward, I asked why he had placed her in my seat.

“She needed access to the maps.”

“There were other chairs.”

“So because you dislike one message, I must reorganize my council?”

I reminded him that I had only asked for a boundary.

Kieran answered, “Then learn the difference between a boundary and control.”

After that, every disagreement followed the same pattern.

During the next full-moon run, Kieran assigned Talia to his right flank. That position usually belonged to his Beta or mate, but he ordered his Beta to lead the rear formation.

Talia hesitated before shifting.

“Mara normally runs beside you.”

“Not tonight.”

He waited until her golden wolf stood beside his black one. Then he looked at me, expecting a reaction.

I confronted him after the run.

“Running beside me does not make her my mate.”

“You know that is not the point.”

“Then stop giving it meaning.”

A month later, I was exposed to wolfsbane while inspecting the southern storage rooms. The dose was not fatal, but it left me shaking with fever while my wolf retreated too deeply to heal me.

Kieran promised to stay until the healer arrived.

Then Talia contacted him.

Her first independent patrol had found fresh rogue tracks near the northern boundary. The warriors had secured the area, but Talia wanted Kieran there.

He reached for his coat.

“You said you would stay.”

“The healer is coming.”

“The patrol has six trained warriors.”

“Talia has never handled rogue evidence before.”

I forced myself upright. “You need to leave tonight?”

Kieran stopped at the door.

“I could have stayed, Mara. You turned this into another argument.”

Then he left.

The healer was delayed by a storm, and my fever continued rising. I finally wrapped myself in a blanket and walked to the treatment hall alone because my wolf was too weak to shift.

While the healer prepared a cleansing draught, celebration howls rose through the pack link.

The northern patrol had returned safely. Talia had completed her first command, and Kieran had remained at the lodge for the ceremonial meal.

I started to send him a private message.

The fever is getting worse.

Before I released the words, another wave of celebration passed through the link. Kieran’s approval surrounded Talia so clearly that I closed our connection.

After that night, I stopped asking.

When Talia occupied the Luna’s seat, I chose another chair. When she ran beside Kieran, I joined the rear formation. When he canceled our plans because she needed him, I answered with one word.

Fine.

Sometimes Talia opened a private link after midnight, and the pull against our courtship bond woke me. I simply turned away and went back to sleep.

Kieran was pleased.

I once heard him tell Mason, “Mara has been much easier lately. She used to challenge every decision. Now she understands which things are worth fighting over.”

Everyone believed I had finally become secure enough to deserve him.

I looked down at the old fever tonic. Once, I had kept it to remind Kieran of the night he left me alone.

He had never asked why it remained unopened.

I dropped the bottle into the disposal box.

For once, the answer I was waiting for would not come from Kieran.

It would come from the Moon Council.

I left my phone beside the open travel case and kept packing.