Chapter 25

I stood under Kael's umbrella, gazing through the heavy curtain of rain at the fresh headstone.

In a daze, memories unspooled in my mind like an old film reel on fast forward.

At 10, two wolf pups tumbled in the grass, and he swore he would always protect me, the girl abandoned by her parents.

At 18, on the night of our coming-of-age ceremony, he had blushed and clumsily kissed my forehead for the first time.

At 22, he knelt on one knee, proposing with the most precious gem of the Black Moon pack, telling me I was his life.

At 25, the power of his pack clouded his eyes and black magic corroded his heart. He began staying out all night, his clothes stained with another she-wolf's cheap perfume.

At 26, before my Luna ceremony, I was "poisoned" by wolfsbane and fell into the rapids. From that day on, he was dead to me.

At 27, we "reunited." He was a handful of cold ashes beneath a tombstone, and I was on the arm of another Alpha, reborn.

There had been love, a love that was once deep and