The Choice

The Moon Festival began at dusk.

Lanterns hung from every tree in the courtyard. Long tables were piled with roasted meat and honey bread. The pack laughed and sang, and children ran between the legs of the warriors with ribbons in their hair. It was the happiest night of the year in Silverfang.

I stood at the back of the crowd in a plain grey servant's dress, holding a tray of cups. Nobody looked at me. A few women turned away when I passed, as if my shame might be catching.

My hand rested against the small silver key hidden in my sleeve. Hazel had slipped me a bag of bread and dried meat that morning, and I had tucked it under the floorboards of my room. I had everything I needed. I was only waiting for one thing.

Are you sure? Sable asked quietly.

I have never been more sure.

Then I am ready. A pause. I have been ready for a long time.

At moonrise, the drums began.

The crowd went silent. At the top of the Moon Altar, a tall white stone platform at the center of the courtyard, Kael stepped into the silver light. He wore black and gold, and the Alpha's circlet gleamed in his dark hair. He looked like a king.

Dorian stood to his left. Ronan stood to his right. And between them, in a gown the color of moonlight, her gold hair braided with pearls, stood Isolde.

My heart did not break. It had already done that. What I felt now was something quieter, and much colder.

"People of Silverfang," Kael said. His voice carried across the courtyard. "Three years ago, I took a Luna by the Moon's law. She served this pack faithfully, and I thank her for it."

A low murmur. Some heads turned toward me. I kept mine still.

"But the Moon has returned to me what I thought I had lost. Isolde Marrow, my first love, my first mate, stands here tonight. Her heart never left this pack, and neither did mine."

Cheers broke out. Isolde bowed her head modestly, a tear sliding down her cheek. Dorian smiled. Even Ronan, who looked like he had not slept in days, forced a nod.

"Therefore," Kael said, "by the authority of the Alpha, I name Isolde Marrow the new Luna of Silverfang. And I ask the Moon to bind our bonds anew."

He held out his hand. Isolde laid her fingers in his.

The drums rolled. The pack roared.

And I set down my tray.

I walked toward the altar.

I do not know when the crowd noticed me. I only know that the sound began to die around me, ripple by ripple, like a stone sinking in a pond. People stepped aside, confused. Someone hissed, "What is she doing?" Someone else said, "Is she mad?"

I did not stop. I climbed the white steps one at a time. The marble was cold under my bare feet. At the top, the silver moonlight washed over me, and I stood in front of the three men I had loved, and the woman who had stolen them.

"Wren," Kael said, low and sharp. "Get down."

"No."

"You were told to watch."

"I watched," I said. "I have watched enough."

Isolde's smile wavered. "Wren, please. Don't make a scene. This is a happy night."

"For you."

I turned to face the crowd. Hundreds of eyes stared back. Mothers who had once brought me soup when I was sick. Warriors I had trained beside. Children whose names I knew.

"People of Silverfang," I said. My voice shook, then steadied. "For three years, I served you as your Luna. I want you to know I did it with my whole heart. I do not hate any of you. But I will not stand silent while a liar takes my seat, and I will not kneel again."

"Guards," Kael said.

"Touch me," I said calmly, "and Sable will tear your hand off."

Silver light flashed in my eyes. The two warriors who had stepped forward froze. In the sudden silence, a low, deep growl rolled out of my chest, so powerful that the lanterns flickered.

I turned back to my mates.

"Kael Blackmoor. Dorian Vance. Ronan Hale." I said each name slowly. "Under the eyes of the Moon Goddess, I stood beside you, and I loved you. You swore to protect me. You swore to believe me. When I needed you most, you chose her."

"Wren, stop," Dorian whispered. His face had gone white. "Please. You don't know what you're doing."

"I know exactly what I'm doing." I lifted my right hand to the sky. "I am Wren Ashford, daughter of the Moon. And I, of my own free will, reject you."

The courtyard exploded.

Gasps. Screams. Someone dropped a tray. Kael lunged toward me, his face twisted in shock, but it was too late. The words had already left my mouth.

"I, Wren Ashford, reject Kael Blackmoor as my mate. I reject Dorian Vance as my mate. I reject Ronan Hale as my mate. I release the bond, in the name of the Moon, and I do not take it back."

For one heartbeat, nothing happened.

Then pain ripped through my chest like a hundred knives. I cried out and fell to one knee. Three golden threads, the cords that had lived inside me for three years, snapped one after the other. Kael. Dorian. Ronan. Each one tore with a sound I felt in my bones.

On the platform, my mates fell.

Kael went down first, one hand clawing at his chest, his mouth open in a soundless scream. Dorian collapsed beside him, gasping, his amber eyes wild. Ronan dropped to both knees, eyes squeezed shut, tears running down his cheeks.

"Wren," Kael choked. "What... what did you..."

"I took back my life," I said, rising slowly. Blood ran from my nose. Silver light poured out of my eyes. Sable stood behind my ribs, fierce and glorious, and for the first time in days I felt whole. "You don't get to take it again."

Isolde stumbled backward, her face frozen in horror. "You can't," she whispered. "You can't do that. It isn't allowed."

I looked at her.

For a heartbeat, I let her see it. All of it. The cold, the quiet, the thing I had become in that dark cell. I let her see that I was not afraid.

"I just did," I said.

I turned my back on all of them and walked down the steps.

The crowd parted for me like water.

No one dared to touch me. They only stared, white-faced and silent, as I crossed the courtyard in my grey dress, with blood on my chin and silver in my eyes. A little girl clutched her mother's skirt. An old man bowed his head.

Behind me, I heard Kael's voice, ragged and broken. "Wren! WREN!"

I did not look back.

I reached the east gate. My hand shook as I took the silver key from my sleeve, slid it into the lock, and turned it. The old iron door groaned open on the forest road.

Cold night air rushed over me. It smelled of pine and rain and freedom.

Are you all right? Sable asked softly.

No, I whispered. But I will be.

I put one hand on my stomach, where two tiny hearts were beating, small and stubborn and alive. I will keep you safe, I told them. I promise. Whatever it takes.

Then I stepped through the gate, and I did not stop walking.

Kael could not breathe.

He lay on the cold white stone of the Moon Altar, one hand clamped over his chest, where there was suddenly nothing. Three years of warmth had been ripped out of him in a single breath. He had never known silence like this. It was louder than any scream.

She is gone.

The thought hit him harder than the pain. She is actually gone.

"Kael!" Isolde knelt beside him, pale and trembling. "Kael, look at me. She is a traitor. She is trying to hurt us. We have to send the warriors after her. We have to..."

"Be quiet."

She froze. He had never spoken to her like that before.

He pushed himself up on one elbow. Dorian was on his hands and knees, retching onto the stone. Ronan was staring at the east gate with the look of a man watching his house burn down. Around them, the whole pack stood in shocked silence, whispering.

"Alpha," a soft, trembling voice said.

Kael looked up.

Hazel stood at the foot of the altar. The old healer's hands were shaking. Tears streaked her wrinkled cheeks. In her fingers, she held a small folded piece of parchment.

"Hazel," Kael rasped. "What is it?"

"I should have told you yesterday." Her voice cracked. "She begged me not to. She said you would not believe her. But I cannot keep it quiet anymore, not after what I just saw."

"Told me what?"

Hazel climbed the steps slowly, knelt in front of him, and held out the note.

Kael took it. His fingers were numb. He unfolded the paper and read the words in the healer's careful handwriting.

Patient: Wren Ashford. Six weeks along. Three heartbeats found. Twins. Both strong. Both healthy.

The world stopped.

He read the words again. Then a third time. The paper began to shake in his hand.

"Twins," Hazel whispered. "She is carrying your children, Alpha. She was carrying them on the stairs. She was carrying them when you locked her in the cell. And she was carrying them when you made her kneel on that stone."

Dorian let out a sound like a wounded animal. Ronan stumbled to his feet, white as bone.

Kael could not speak. He stared at the note, and at the east gate where his wife had vanished, and at the dark road beyond it where the woman he loved was walking away with his sons or daughters in her belly.

Behind him, Isolde's whisper came cold and thin.

"She's lying. She has to be. It's another trick."

But for the first time in his life, Kael Blackmoor did not believe her.

He rose to his feet, and the Alpha's roar that tore from his throat shook every lantern in the courtyard.

"WREN!"