Chapter 1 — Forty Days Before the Mark

Blood made the stone slick beneath Lorelai’s palms.

She dragged herself toward the open door anyway.

Ten feet. That was all.

Her arms gave out before she made two.

The silver blade below her ribs hurt, but the poison in the wine had already stolen her strength. Bitter metal coated her tongue. Blood warmed her fingers.

Behind her, silk whispered.

“You were always too trusting,” Aria said.

Lorelai knew that voice. She also knew who Aria had stood beside for years, smiling while Caelan dismissed every doubt Lorelai voiced.

Lorelai had loved him before the mark. Trusted him enough to go willingly to his rooms. Trusted the bond enough to believe betrayal had become impossible.

Now Caelan’s mark pulsed faintly on her neck while she died alone.

Karl Ashborne had died three nights earlier. Caelan’s wolfless uncle. The man everyone dismissed, though Greyhaven followed him.

After Karl died, Greyhaven burned.

Caelan kept the gates closed.

Then Aria came for Lorelai.

Forty days.

That was how much time she had once had before she gave Caelan everything the bond had not already taken.

If she had those days again—

“You should have accepted what you were,” Aria murmured behind her. “A placeholder.”

Lorelai closed her eyes.

Not again.

Air slammed into her lungs.

She surged upright.

No blood. No stone floor. No blade.

Morning light cut across pale bed curtains. A fire snapped in the hearth. Lorelai clutched her side and found smooth linen over unbroken skin.

Then she touched her neck.

Nothing.

No scar.

No mate mark.

Her wolf crashed awake inside her, frantic, reaching for a bond that was still bright and unfinished.

Caelan.

Lorelai stumbled from the bed and seized the calendar card beside the lamp.

The bond had awakened two days ago.

The private ceremony was in forty days.

Before sex. Before acceptance. Before his teeth closed over her neck and made the choice almost impossible to undo.

A knock struck the door.

“Lorelai?” a maid called. “The Alpha asked for you at breakfast.”

Karl was alive.

Greyhaven still stood.

Aria had not yet become untouchable.

Lorelai dressed. Her hands shook once, when she fastened the collar over the place where the mark had been.

By the time she entered Garrick Ashborne’s private council room, the terror had narrowed into a decision.

Caelan stood near the long table.

Handsome. Young. Alive.

For one brutal second, memory split him in two: the man she had once chosen, and the man who would watch Greyhaven burn because saving it was inconvenient.

The mate bond pulled.

Her wolf answered with a wounded sound.

“Where were you?” Caelan stepped toward her. “I sent for you twice.”

Lorelai stopped beyond his reach.

Garrick watched from the head of the table. “You asked to speak before the household gathered.”

“Yes.”

Caelan frowned. “About what?”

No explanation would give him the years she remembered.

She did not need one.

“I, Lorelai Jones, reject you, Caelan Ashborne, as my mate.”

Pain ripped through her chest.

Lorelai caught the edge of the table while her wolf howled for the future she had just refused. Across from her, Caelan staggered.

“What did you say?”

She forced herself upright. “I reject the mate bond.”

His face had gone white. “Why?”

Karl dead.

Greyhaven burning.

Closed gates.

Aria at his side while Lorelai bled out on a stone floor.

“I do not choose it.”

Caelan crossed the space between them. “You’re in pain. You don’t know what you’re saying.”

He reached for her.

Lorelai stepped back.

His hand stopped in the empty space between them.

Garrick rose. “A rejection cannot be spoken lightly.”

“It was not.”

“You understand what this costs you? Your position here. Protection. The future promised to you as Caelan’s mate.”

“Yes.”

Caelan looked at his father. “She’s frightened. Give her time.”

“I have had enough time.”

The words came more quietly than Lorelai expected.

Garrick studied her.

“Then what do you intend to do?”

“Send me to Greyhaven.”

Caelan gave a short, disbelieving laugh. “The rogue settlement?”

“I can work. I can keep records, manage stores, negotiate supplies. I won’t be a burden.”

“You think Karl will take you?”

Karl.

Alive now, but not safe. Not if the future was allowed to repeat itself.

“I’m asking to go to Greyhaven.”

Garrick came around the table slowly. “The pack will not recognize you there. Our law will not protect you. You will lose the position you were raised to hold.”

“I understand.”

Not all of it.

But she understood the graves waiting if she did nothing.

Garrick’s expression hardened. “Your mother died saving my life. I promised she would never leave a daughter unprotected.”

Lorelai swallowed.

“Then let me choose the protection.”

Silence held for a beat.

“You have.”

Garrick returned to his chair.

“I will permit you to leave and reside in Greyhaven.”

Caelan turned sharply. “Father—”

“On one condition.”

Lorelai looked at Garrick.

His gaze did not shift.

“You will marry my brother Karl.”