Chapter 17

Nadia

The formal bonding ceremony was set for the following month, giving both packs time to prepare and giving me time to adjust to a life that no longer required hiding anything about myself. My father handled most of the political details, while Kade's mother, Alpha Ashford's wife, insisted on helping with the parts that had nothing to do with politics at all.

"Every bonding ceremony needs proper preparation," she said, arriving at Royal territory with fabric samples and a notebook full of plans. "Not just the formal exchange. The celebration after matters too, especially given everything the two of you have already survived together."

"I don't need anything elaborate," I said, though I appreciated the effort.

"Nonsense. You spent eighteen years without a single normal celebration in your honor. Let us fix that." She smiled warmly, already sketching ideas. "Besides, three allied packs deserve a proper reason to celebrate something joyful, after everything with Draven."

I couldn't argue with that.

Not everyone approached the coming ceremony with celebration in mind. Marcus appeared at Royal territory again, a week before the bonding, his expression carefully neutral in a way that told me immediately he hadn't come purely for pleasantries.

"I heard the date's set," he said, finding me in the garden where he'd cornered me once before.

"It is."

"My father's attending. Officially, as part of the alliance now." He paused. "I wasn't sure I would."

"You don't have to."

"I know." He studied me for a long moment, something more honest than our previous conversations. "I came to apologize, actually. For how I acted before. I was angry about the broken match, about what it meant for my family's border troubles, and I said things I shouldn't have."

I hadn't expected that. "I appreciate you saying so."

"I've had time to think, since Draven's defeat," he continued. "Watching how the alliance actually strengthened all three territories, watching you handle a threat none of us fully understood at the time. I was wrong to blame you for choosing what was right for yourself instead of what was convenient for my family's politics."

"Thank you, Marcus. That means something."

He nodded, some of the old tension between us finally easing. "For what it's worth, I hope the ceremony goes well. Genuinely."

"I hope your border troubles stay resolved too," I said. "Genuinely."

A small, real smile crossed his face before he left, and I found myself relieved that at least one loose thread from the past few months had finally settled peacefully.

Training continued even as ceremony preparations filled most of my days, my father insisting that becoming a properly bonded heir didn't mean stepping back from the strength I'd spent weeks building.

"Draven's followers scattered," he reminded me during one session, "but scattered isn't the same as gone. Stay sharp."

"I intend to."

Kade joined most sessions now, our sparring less about testing hidden strength and more about growing stronger together, learning each other's instincts and rhythms in a way that felt entirely different from those first careful, guarded matches back at school.

"You've gotten faster," he said, catching his breath after a particularly hard round.

"You've gotten predictable," I teased. "I've learned your favorite openings."

"Rude, considering I'm about to bond myself to you permanently." But he was grinning, easy and unguarded in a way that still occasionally caught me off guard, remembering how careful and controlled he'd seemed that very first day in training class.

"Any regrets?" I asked, only half joking.

"Not one," he said immediately, closing the distance between us. "Not from the day I first felt that pull in training class, not through any of the mess that followed. I'd choose this exact path again, every time."

The night before the ceremony, I found myself back at the tree line near Ashford territory, the same quiet spot where Kade and I had first properly talked after the bonfire all those months ago. He found me there without needing to be told where to look.

"Couldn't sleep either?" he asked, settling beside me on the familiar fence.

"Too much on my mind." I glanced at him. "Tomorrow feels different than I expected. Bigger."

"It is bigger," he admitted. "Formal bond, two pack heirs, three allied territories watching. That's not nothing."

"I'm not scared of it, though," I said, surprising myself with how true that felt. "Which is strange, considering how terrified I was of just being seen a few months ago."

"You've changed a lot since then."

"So have you." I leaned against his shoulder, comfortable in a way that would have felt impossible back when hiding had defined nearly everything about me. "I keep thinking about that first day. You barely knew me, and somehow you knew something was different anyway."

"Good instincts," he said, echoing words from months earlier, though softer now, warmer.

"Best instincts," I corrected. "You waited for me. Through all of it. The hiding, the danger, everything. You never once pushed harder than I could handle."

"I told you I wouldn't." He turned to face me fully, the same steady certainty from that very first bleacher conversation still present in his eyes, though deepened now by everything we'd survived together since. "I meant every word back then. I mean it even more now."

We sat together quietly for a while longer, the wind moving softly through the trees, no danger circling anywhere close, no secrets left unspoken between us. Tomorrow would bring the formal ceremony, the public exchange, the celebration both our families had worked so hard to prepare.

But tonight, in this familiar quiet spot where everything real between us had first begun, I let myself simply exist as exactly who I was — not a hidden princess, not a political asset, not a target for someone else's ambition.

Just Nadia, sitting beside her mate, finally, completely unafraid of being seen.

"Ready for tomorrow?" Kade asked eventually, standing and offering his hand to help me up.

I took it without hesitation, my wolf settled and certain, the pull between us no longer something frightening to hide, but something I'd fought hard enough to finally, fully claim.

"Ready," I said, and meant it more than I'd meant almost anything in my entire life.