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00:02To let my mate focus on his position, I stayed behind in the old estate, caring for his ailing
00:06mother. In this 10 years, Kalen returned once a year. He never touched me. He said that if I were
00:13to carry a pup while he was away, there would be no one to look after me, and that would
00:16break his
00:16heart. Every time he left, he cursed himself for his failings, swore on the moon he would come for
00:22me once he had made something of himself. In the 11th winter, heavy snow blocked the roads. Kalen
00:27sent word that he would be delayed. I was about to bring the news to Lady Maren when I heard
00:31her
00:31speaking with my sister-in-law. Mother, you've been faking this illness for over 10 years. How much
00:37longer? What else can be done? Kalen's heart has always belonged to that sworn sister of his. They
00:41bonded in secret, behind the pack's back. Their pups are nearly grown. If we don't keep Elena here,
00:46she'll go to the city and destroy everything. Kalen's rank as alpha of the eastern pack would
00:50be finished. Let it be. Keep quiet. Kalen said once his position is secure, he will make it right with
00:55Elena. My eyes burned. Kalen wasn't struggling. He was alpha of the eastern pack, and he hadn't been
01:01keeping his distance to protect me. He had someone else. I went to the training grounds and found the
01:06low-ranking warrior who had watched me for years. Do you still want me as your mate?
01:11Elena, I will treat you well. But give me one month. I march out tonight. This time I'll return
01:16with a deed worth claiming you. I don't need glory. Just come back safe. I watched him leave,
01:24then walked home. The estate should have been dark. Mother, you should have gone to bed by now.
01:31A tall figure stood against the candlelight. A familiar voice cut through the wind and snow.
01:36Elena, I'm home.
01:40A year had passed. Kalen carried himself differently now. Steadier, with the quiet authority that comes
01:47with rank. He opened his arms, waiting for me to go to him the way I always had. I didn't.
01:54You haven't eaten, have you? Let me make you something.
01:57What's wrong? A year apart and you're not glad to see me? Are you angry with me?
02:03Go sit with Mother. I'll call you when the food is ready.
02:06Before I'd learned the truth, I had missed him. Had been a little cross with him, too.
02:09No mate wants to be kept so far away, for so long. But once I understood everything,
02:14I stopped wanting anything. Things became simpler. Better to part quietly than to rage and stay.
02:19I remained silent and cooked in the kitchen. Kalen followed.
02:22Elena, what's happened? Have you heard something?
02:24Out here in the backwoods, we barely see a stranger from one season to the next. What would I have
02:28heard?
02:29Don't worry yourself, Kalen.
02:30Elena, I came back to bring you all to the city. But there's something I need to tell you first.
02:34My chest tightened. I already knew what was coming. After ten years, he had finally run out of patience.
02:40You must be Elena. I'm Sarith. Kalen's sworn sister. And his mate.
02:47These are mine and Kalen's. Go on, call her Auntie Elena.
02:50Auntie Elena.
02:51Elena, let me explain.
02:55Elena, let me explain. I was ambushed by rogue wolves on the road to the city. Sarith saved my life.
03:00I only meant to take her in as a sworn sister. But she had no one, no pack, nowhere to
03:04go.
03:04I wanted to give her a home. It was gratitude, nothing more.
03:06If you're hurt, curse me, strike me, I'll bear it. I only ask that once you come to the city,
03:11you and she can find some people.
03:12Going to the city is a good thing. I'm not upset. Mother hasn't recovered in all this time. Perhaps the
03:18city healers will do what ours couldn't.
03:21Really? You forgive me? Elena, start packing tonight. We leave in two days and we'll make it back for Christmas.
03:29Mother doesn't have much. Packing her things won't take long. I'll sort her medicines for the road. You can all
03:34leave at first light.
03:36What do you mean? You're not coming with us?
03:40I met his gaze. My voice stayed level.
03:43Kaylin, if we leave for good, I need to settle the land and the estate first.
03:48Leaving it empty still means taxes to the pack. That's wasteful.
03:53Go ahead and take everyone home for Christmas.
03:56Once I've handled things here, I'll come to you in the spring.
03:58When I had first come to this estate, we lived in a borrowed den with walls that let the wind
04:03through, funding his studies, saving coin, until I had bought this house and these two fields.
04:08It had ended the family's hunger. It had given Kaylin a place to become what he was.
04:13Elena, I'm Alpha of the Eastern Pack now. Silver is not the problem. Give the land to whoever needs it.
04:18Save yourself the trouble.
04:19I earned it with my own hands. I'm not ready to let go.
04:24Trust me. Once it's done, I'll come to you. I won't be long.
04:28Kaylin hesitated.
04:29Kaylin, don't waver. The council's watching you.
04:31You leave her here and they dig into it and she says the wrong thing. Your seat is gone.
04:36I wasn't slow. I heard exactly what Kareth had just said.
04:40So it wasn't a change of heart that had brought Kaylin back.
04:43If the pack council confirmed it, they would report it to the High Alpha.
04:46The High Alpha was a man who made it once and meant it.
04:50If Kaylin wanted to keep his rank, the most important thing was keeping me quiet.
04:55It would be a lie to say that didn't hurt.
04:57Thirteen years.
04:58I had given this mating everything.
05:00Kaylin was pack-born but useless with his hands.
05:02Lady Maren was old and couldn't help.
05:04His brother was worse than useless.
05:05The whole family ran on my back.
05:07I never complained.
05:08I nursed Lady Maren.
05:09I had believed that kind of devotion would hold a mate for life.
05:12I had overestimated what I was worth to him.
05:15I finally understood what they say.
05:16A man who climbs always drops what carried him.
05:19I held back the burn in my eyes.
05:21Kept it from spilling.
05:23So that's what you're worried about?
05:26I can put it in writing.
05:29Whoever asks, I'll say I'm Kaylin's pack-sister, his adopted blood kin.
05:33Nothing more.
05:34Lady Maren and Kareth both stared.
05:37After a long silence, Kaylin said, half-believing,
05:40You would really do that for me?
05:43I smiled and nodded.
05:44For you, I would do anything.
05:47But to be safe, there's something you need to destroy first.
05:52Kaylin was cautious.
05:53What?
05:54I answered without flinching.
05:55The mating scroll.
05:57Yours and mine.
06:00Out here in the back territories, we hadn't stood on ceremony when we bonded.
06:04A mating scroll.
06:05A shared cup.
06:06That was all it had taken.
06:08No pack record.
06:09No council seal.
06:11So if the scroll was gone, I was no longer Kaylin's mate.
06:14I only had to wait for the warrior to come home.
06:17Then I could be claimed properly.
06:19I expected Kaylin to want this without hesitation.
06:22Instead, he went quiet.
06:24Elena, you once told me that scroll was the most precious thing you owned.
06:29You've given so much for this pack.
06:31For me, if you burned the last thing you held on to, how much would that cost you?
06:37Let's leave the scroll as it is.
06:39He had seen everything I'd sacrificed.
06:41He had remembered all of it.
06:43And still, year after year, he had left me here while he built a life with someone else.
06:48If he could watch out all of that and stay,
06:51then I had no reason left to hold on to one sheet of parchment.
06:54But I knew him.
06:55He wouldn't simply let me go.
06:59Kaylin, you know how much that scroll means to me.
07:03But for your future, I have to let it go.
07:07Once you take me to the city properly, you can make me a new one.
07:12Wouldn't that be enough?
07:13She's right.
07:15Your position can't afford loose threads.
07:19Burn it.
07:21Elena has done this for you.
07:24Make it up to her later.
07:26Elena, hiding this from you, that was wrong.
07:30But trust me, I will make this right.
07:34Wait for me.
07:35I will come for you myself with the best claiming gifts I can find.
07:38I'll take you as Kaylin again, properly this time.
07:41In that moment, he looked entirely sincere.
07:44I chose not to believe it.
07:45I decided it was only something I was imagining.
07:49I lit both scrolls myself.
07:51The fire took them.
07:52That absurd mating, those wasted years.
07:54And with them, the last of what I had held on to for over a decade.
08:02After Kaylin had gone in with Kareth and the children, she dropped the act entirely and sank to her knees
08:07in front of me.
08:11Elena, I failed you.
08:14I hid it from you all these years.
08:18You must hate me.
08:20Her hair had gone fully white.
08:21She was crying without restraint.
08:23I couldn't bring myself to leave her there.
08:25I helped her up.
08:29Mother, I know you love your son too much.
08:32I don't blame you.
08:34The illness was a pretense.
08:36But your body has all its real troubles.
08:40When you reach the city, listen to the healers.
08:43Elena, how can you be so good?
08:46When I'm gone, who will ever look after me the way you have?
08:51No matter what Kaylin does to you, I will always count you as my own daughter.
08:56Mother, I will never let anyone mistreat you.
09:00I understood her helplessness.
09:01I had never held it against her.
09:03But I was done trusting her too.
09:04She was still a mother.
09:06No matter what she said, her heart would always tilt toward her son.
09:09If the day came when she had to choose between Kaylin and me, she would choose him without a second
09:13thought.
09:14Mother, it's fine.
09:15Whoever Kaylin takes as his mate, she'll be half a daughter to you.
09:19You don't owe me anything.
09:23I had barely stepped out of Lady Meryn's room when Kareth was waiting in the yard.
09:27Elena, don't take anything Kaylin says at face value.
09:31The truth is, he never rescued me.
09:33I had thought that Lady Meryn's decade of deception and Kaylin's betrayal were already the worst of it.
09:38I was wrong.
09:39There was still more they had kept from me.
09:41Sereth had never saved Kaylin's life.
09:43It was the other way around.
09:44Kaylin had seen her, wanted her, used the blood sister bond as a way in, and destroyed the claiming she
09:50already had.
09:51Calling her his rescuer was Kaylin's strategy.
09:53He knew I was soft, that I always repaid what was owed.
09:56He had spoken to Lady Meryn first and built the story together.
09:59Something designed to make me accept it, to make me give in.
10:02So everything he said about claiming you properly, it's nothing.
10:04Go to the city and you'll be a lesser mate, that's all.
10:08Oh, and his mother.
10:09All that talk about treating you like a daughter, do you believe it?
10:12When it comes down to you or her own grandchildren, who do you think she picks?
10:16Are you done?
10:18The morning they left, I walked the family to the edge of the settlement.
10:22I unclasped the only thing of value I still wore, the Luna Elder's silver clasp, and placed it in Sereth's
10:26hand.
10:27That's yours, Elena. Keep it.
10:29I shook my head and pinned it to Kareth's collar myself.
10:32I said,
10:33Everyone in the settlement knows this clasp is the Luna Elder's piece, passed to the maid of the pack's heir.
10:37If I keep wearing it, it draws questions. Better that Sereth has it.
10:40Mother, Elena is right. When we're together again, I'll give it back.
10:43Elena, what I give you belongs to you.
10:45In my heart, you are the only true mate this family has had.
10:48When you come to the city, I will get it back for you.
10:51Foster brother, that pendant was my grandmother's.
10:54The only thing she left me.
10:56Could you return it?
10:57Elena, I'm not used to you calling me that.
11:00When there's no one listening, call me what you always have.
11:06Better to be careful. We can't hand anyone a thread to pull.
11:10Fine. Once I've claimed you properly, you can go back to it.
11:14Let me keep the pendant for now. It was your gift to me. It's what we have between us.
11:19I never understood that.
11:20He used to resent the pendant, said a grown male wearing something like that, looked ridiculous.
11:24Now that I was willing to take it back, he had found reasons to keep it.
11:27Foster brother, Christmas is almost here.
11:29I'll be alone, and I'd like something to hold on to.
11:32When I come to the city, I'll make you another.
11:35Kaelin gave it up without warmth, pressing the pendant and a folded stack of silver notes into my hands.
11:39At the last moment, he turned back. He gripped my hand once.
11:43Stay home and wait. When spring opens the roads, I'll come for you myself.
11:46There's one more thing I haven't told you yet.
11:48Alright.
11:49I watched them go, then walked back inside.
11:51I reached to the top of the cabinet and took down the pack I had already prepared.
11:57I left the silver notes on the table.
11:59Then I turned north and didn't look back.
12:01The warrior I had promised myself to was somewhere in that direction.
12:04I meant to be claimed before Kaelin ever came to collect me.
12:06When that day came, I would be someone else's.
12:09There would be nothing left to untangle, nothing left to demand of me.
12:12Winter roads are slow.
12:13I had little silver, and I was too careful with it to hire a cart.
12:16I walked when I could, stopped to take work in whatever town would have me,
12:19and moved on again when I'd saved enough.
12:21By the time the cold began to ease, I was close to the northern border.
12:25Elena, the border war is over. The northern campaign won.
12:28Once they've processed the captured forces, they'll be heading back through the territory.
12:31You'll see your promised mate before long.
12:33Your mate is a hero of this pack.
12:34Call it a gift from me.
12:35Hire a cart.
12:36Go meet him at the border city.
12:38Hired a cart, and arrived before the soldiers did.
12:41With what little silver I had left,
12:43I found the city watch captain and pressed it into his hand.
12:46Captain,
12:47Captain,
12:47my promised mate's name is Aldrich.
12:50When he arrives,
12:51please tell him I'm waiting in the second house east of the city gate.
12:55You're Aldrich's promised mate?
12:59He smiled a little awkwardly.
13:01Keep it.
13:02Just put in a word for me if you ever get the chance.
13:06I had no idea what he meant.
13:07Aldrich was a low-ranking warrior.
13:09What good would a word from him do?
13:10The captain had probably mistaken him for someone else.
13:13Still, silver saved was silver saved.
13:15Waiting wasn't easy.
13:17I knew what Aldrich felt for me.
13:18He had shown it for years,
13:20but I had been made it before.
13:21I wasn't sure whether he had said yes out of true wanting,
13:24or out of something that would fade.
13:26Then again,
13:27I thought it through,
13:27and it settled.
13:28If he had changed his mind,
13:30I would manage on my own.
13:31I had two hands and enough stubbornness.
13:33I wouldn't starve.
13:34Once I was at peace with that,
13:35everything felt lighter.
13:38I started cutting fabric for a claiming dress.
13:41The best material I could find.
13:42Useful if things went well.
13:44A small pleasure for myself if they didn't.
13:45The first time I was claimed,
13:47there had been no wedding at all.
13:48The pack had nothing.
13:49No wedding dress.
13:50No feast.
13:50When I'd finally had coin to spare,
13:52the first thing I did was return two full jugs to that neighbor.
13:54She had held my hands and cried,
13:56Elena, a girl like you?
13:57Why did you stay in that pack?
13:58You've suffered so much.
13:59You're strong and you're lovely.
14:01You could have had an elder son,
14:02and it wouldn't have been reaching.
14:03Why tie yourself to a scholar
14:04who can't lift his own pack and grind your life away?
14:07That's your bias speaking.
14:08I trust him.
14:08He won't fail me.
14:10You are such a fool.
14:11Now I understood.
14:12She was the one who had seen clearly.
14:14The day I slipped away from the settlement,
14:16I had nearly walked into Kaylin's sister-in-law.
14:20It was that neighbor who spotted her first.
14:22She held the woman back,
14:23then sent her husband to pass me word.
14:25Move.
14:26Now.
14:27Elena, that pack was never worthy of you.
14:30Go.
14:31Live freely.
14:33Stop letting them keep you caged.
14:36I'll deal with your sister-in-law.
14:37They won't know you're gone for a while.
14:40I never found out what she said to buy me the time,
14:42but it had worked.
14:43For an entire month,
14:45no one had come looking.
14:46People, though,
14:46have a way of undoing themselves.
14:48On the third day,
14:49a cart stopped outside my door.
14:51I thought it was Aldrich.
14:53I ran out.
14:54It wasn't.
14:55Kaylin stood there,
14:56dust on his shoulders.
14:57Elena.
14:57His voice worn down to gravel.
15:01Kaylin said,
15:02Elena,
15:02you have no idea how long I've been looking for you.
15:05He was across the yard in a few strides,
15:07his hand locking around my wrist hard enough to grind.
15:09Kaylin said,
15:10Elena,
15:11you promised me.
15:12Why did you leave?
15:12Why come all the way out here?
15:14I spent half a month preparing.
15:16I rode to the settlement myself to bring you home,
15:18and the house was empty.
15:19I said,
15:20do you know how frightened I was?
15:21I stopped pulling against his grip.
15:23Alpha Kaylin,
15:24why waste your concern on me?
15:26The mating scroll is ash.
15:27I'm not your pack anymore.
15:29Where I go,
15:29whether I live or die,
15:31none of that is your matter.
15:32Kaylin's jaw tightened.
15:34Elena,
15:34I know you're hurting,
15:35but this kind of recklessness doesn't suit you.
15:37You told me you would come to the city.
15:39You gave me your word.
15:40How can you break it like this?
15:42Something in me gave up trying to stay composed.
15:45I said,
15:45when we were claimed,
15:46you gave me your word too.
15:48You swore on the moon you would never take another mate.
15:51You broke that one first.
15:52So,
15:53between the two of us,
15:54I'd say we're even.
15:58Kaylin saw that I meant it.
16:00His eyes went red at the edges.
16:01He pulled me close until there was almost no space between us.
16:05Thirteen years.
16:06You think that just cancels?
16:09Elena,
16:09I know I've wronged you.
16:11Let me make it right.
16:12Come back with me.
16:13I'll give you equal standing.
16:15You won't be beneath Carith in anything.
16:17I promise.
16:17I couldn't stop a short dry sound from escaping.
16:21Kaylin took it for pride over the title and frowned.
16:24Elena,
16:24equal standing is the best I can do right now.
16:27Sarath,
16:27what she did for me,
16:29what she did for you.
16:30Are you still going to use that story?
16:32I cut him off.
16:33Kaylin,
16:34your apology has no effort in it at all.
16:36Kaylin went still.
16:37His eyes shifted.
16:38What do you mean by that?
16:42I watched the change move across his face and I took it apart,
16:45piece by piece.
16:46Tarith already told me everything.
16:48There were no rogue wolves.
16:50There was no rescue.
16:51You saw her,
16:52wanted her,
16:53and used the sworn sister bond to get close.
16:55You destroyed the claiming she already had and took her for yourself,
16:59calling her your rescuer.
17:00That was cover.
17:01Nothing more.
17:02Kaylin's face went pale.
17:03He opened his mouth.
17:04Nothing came out.
17:05I was done wasting time.
17:06I moved to see him out.
17:07He found his voice.
17:09Elena,
17:09listen to me.
17:10Karith is possessive.
17:11She said all of that to drive a wedge between us.
17:14You know how it is.
17:15No mate wants to share.
17:16I cut him off.
17:17I felt nothing in my chest anymore.
17:19It had all gone numb.
17:21You understand that.
17:22Which is why you kept me out here for 10 years,
17:24alone,
17:25while your mother faked an illness to hold me in place.
17:27Isn't that right?
17:31I said,
17:32if you care about her so much,
17:34stop chasing me.
17:35You'll hurt me and you'll hurt her.
17:36I wrenched my wrist free and stepped back.
17:38The Elena who existed before is gone.
17:40She died the day she found out the truth.
17:42Who I am now has no connection to you.
17:45To Kaylin.
17:46To your pack.
17:47Out of whatever feeling I once had,
17:48I won't say a single word against you.
17:50I'm only asking you to leave.
17:52My promised mate is returning with the army.
17:55I don't want him to misread this.
17:57Kaylin's spine went rigid.
17:58He looked up at me.
17:59He said,
18:00promised mate?
18:01Who?
18:01What's his name?
18:02I said,
18:03a low-ranking warrior.
18:04No one you'd know.
18:06Please go.
18:07Kaylin's expression curdled.
18:08Elena,
18:08have you lost your mind?
18:10You'd pass up an alpha of the eastern pack for some common soldier with a border stipend?
18:18He said,
18:19he could be dead by next season.
18:21And even if he's not,
18:22what does he earn?
18:23You'd go back to going hungry.
18:25You're not young anymore.
18:26Do you really want that kind of life again?
18:28I looked at him steadily.
18:30I wasn't afraid of hardship when I chose you.
18:33I'm not afraid of it now.
18:36Don't speak about my promised mate like that.
18:38He may not have your rank,
18:40but what he feels for me is real.
18:42Unlike you.
18:43Kaylin opened his mouth,
18:45then stopped.
18:46A long pause,
18:47then more controlled.
18:48Elena,
18:49you've misread all of this.
18:51I never stopped carrying you.
18:52He seemed to decide that words weren't enough,
18:54and cut himself off.
18:55Come back with me.
18:56I'll show you.
18:57Give me the chance.
18:58The border campaign's war alpha,
19:01General Vane.
19:02He and I go back.
19:03I'll speak to him.
19:04As long as that warrior is reasonable,
19:06I'll find him a proper match myself.
19:08I'll cover the claiming gifts.
19:12I had always been slow to anger.
19:15This was one of the few times I wasn't.
19:18Staring at Kaylin,
19:19I struggled to contain my fury as I questioned him,
19:22asking if he had lost his mind.
19:24He didn't put it plainly,
19:25but I understood perfectly.
19:27He intended to use his status as the alpha of the Eastern Pact
19:30to pressure Aldrich into stepping aside.
19:33Aldrich was just a foot soldier,
19:34with no standing to resist an alpha of the Eastern Pact.
19:38In desperation,
19:39I grabbed the sword from Kaylin's side.
19:41I pressed the blade firmly against my own throat,
19:44warning him that if he dared to go near Aldrich,
19:46I would end my life right then and there.
19:51I told Kaylin that my life was not worth much,
19:53but if a pack alpha drove a free woman to her death,
19:55his own fate would not be better.
19:58Kaylin had always thought of me as cautious,
19:59and someone who valued her own life.
20:02He had never imagined I would resort to threatening my own life.
20:06He froze instantly,
20:07his voice dropping low as he urged me to put down the sword,
20:10saying we could talk things through.
20:12I didn't move an inch,
20:14firmly telling him there was nothing to talk about.
20:16If he didn't want me dead,
20:17he had to write down his promise immediately.
20:20The promise was simple.
20:22From that day on,
20:23if anything happened to me or my betrothed,
20:26Aldrich,
20:27he would be held fully responsible.
20:30Kaylin had spent years in pack politics,
20:31and would never willingly leave evidence that could be used against him,
20:35but as he looked at the sword pressed to my throat,
20:37his tone remained steady.
20:39He agreed to write it down,
20:40but said he had come in a hurry and had nothing to write with,
20:43asking me to go inside to find him ink and parchment.
20:46I didn't think ahead,
20:48turning toward the house at once,
20:50but the moment my back was to him,
20:52he moved.
20:53He snatched the sword from my hand,
20:55didn't even glance at me,
20:57He ordered his escort to hold me while he went to find General Vane.
21:00His men reacted quickly,
21:02seizing me before I could respond.
21:04I couldn't even utter a curse.
21:06Just then,
21:07a deep, calm,
21:09and resonant voice came from beyond the gate.
21:11The voice asked Alpha Kaylin why he was there,
21:14and mentioned that he had heard his name,
21:16wondering if something was wrong.
21:21I didn't recognize that voice,
21:22but moments later,
21:24I heard Kaylin's tone shift to one of deference as he greeted the man,
21:27addressing him as General Vane and saying what perfect timing his arrival was.
21:31He added that it was nothing urgent,
21:33just a small favor he wanted to ask of General Vane.
21:36Only then did I realize that the man before me was General Vane,
21:40the War Alpha of the Northern Territory.
21:43General Vane smiled and readily agreed to help,
21:45but asked Alpha Kaylin to wait a moment while he finished a piece of business first.
21:49Kaylin stepped back toward the gate quickly,
21:52respectfully saying he was willing to wait and telling General Vane to take his time.
21:56General Vane then dismounted from his horse and pointed directly at my door.
22:00He said that as it happened,
22:02his business was right there.
22:05Kaylin stopped abruptly,
22:06looking stunned.
22:07General Vane looked at him without further explanation,
22:10only stating that he had come to negotiate a claiming.
22:13Kaylin froze completely,
22:16unconsciously stepping in front of the gate.
22:18He tried to persuade General Vane,
22:20saying that his mate bond was well known,
22:22his children were nearly grown,
22:23and such a thing would be inappropriate.
22:27General Vane laughed heartily,
22:29shook his head,
22:29and told Kaylin he had misunderstood.
22:32This claiming was not for himself,
22:34but on behalf of his sworn son,
22:36who had been injured and couldn't come in person.
22:39I was just as confused as Kaylin,
22:41even starting to wonder if General Vane had come to the wrong house.
22:45General Vane himself looked a little uncertain
22:47as he walked past Kaylin into the yard.
22:49His escort, not wanting to get into trouble,
22:52let me go.
22:54Born in the north,
22:55General Vane was straightforward
22:56and didn't notice anything amiss.
22:58He looked straight at me and asked if I was Elena.
23:01I nodded slowly.
23:03He immediately looked satisfied,
23:05confirming he had come to the right place.
23:07He told me that his sworn son was my betrothed,
23:09Aldrich.
23:13Upon hearing General Vane's words,
23:15my thoughts went sideways.
23:17Aldrich was just a low-ranking soldier.
23:19How had he ended up as General Vane's sworn son?
23:23I rubbed the back of my neck and explained to General Vane
23:25that I thought there must be a mistake.
23:27My betrothed was indeed named Aldrich,
23:30but he could never be General Vane's sworn son.
23:33I even wondered if there might be two people with the same name.
23:37General Vane seemed less confident as he described his sworn son's features.
23:41Born in the eastern settlement of the southern territory,
23:43with a small mark near the corner of his left eye.
23:46He asked if these features matched my betrothed.
23:49He added that if it would help,
23:51he would have his sworn son carried over for me to confirm in person.
23:55I stopped him quickly,
23:56telling him there was no need,
23:58that every detail he described matched Aldrich perfectly.
24:01I begged him not to move the injured Aldrich,
24:03saying that since he was hurt,
24:05I would go to see him myself.
24:07With that,
24:08I walked toward the gate,
24:09distracted.
24:10But Kalen,
24:11who had been silent for a long time,
24:13suddenly reached out and grabbed my arm,
24:15stopping me in my tracks.
24:20Kalen stood in front of me,
24:21turning to General Vane
24:22and saying there was something he should know
24:24first.
24:25He told General Vane that I was his pack sister,
24:28that he had raised me,
24:29and that he had never heard me mention the name Aldrich once.
24:32He added that if Aldrich and I had made promises to each other
24:35without the family's knowledge,
24:37their bond could not be recognized.
24:40Then he lowered his voice,
24:41leaned close to me,
24:42and warned me not to say anything foolish.
24:45He said that Aldrich was now General Vane's sworn son,
24:49and if General Vane found out I had been mated before,
24:52I would not only lose this claiming,
24:54but also ruin Aldrich's reputation.
24:57Those words hit home.
24:59Aldrich had only just found his footing in the north.
25:01If I cost him everything because of my past,
25:03I would never forgive myself.
25:05I was still trying to figure out how to respond,
25:07when General Vane's expression shifted.
25:10He told Kalen firmly that his approval no longer mattered,
25:13because it was not I who had come to them,
25:15but they who had sought me out.
25:18General Vane then spoke of Aldrich's deeds,
25:20saying that in this campaign,
25:23Aldrich had charged into the thickest of the fighting.
25:25He had taken out the enemy's left flank
25:27and brought back the enemy commander's banner,
25:30earning the first honor of the war.
25:32Yet he had refused all rewards from the High Alpha,
25:35every single coin.
25:36Instead, he used his achievement to petition the Moon Council for a decree,
25:41a recognized claiming with me.
25:44General Vane finally warned Kalen that if his family dared to object,
25:48they would be opposing the High Alpha's own ruling.
25:51I stood there for a long time,
25:54never having imagined that Aldrich would fight so fiercely for me.
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