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00:00Vivian and I were built from the same blueprint, the same narrow waist, the same pale slope of shoulder and
00:05throat.
00:06Side by side in daylight, the resemblance was unsettling.
00:09In total darkness, with the masking tinctures working through my skin, his wolf couldn't tell the difference.
00:15What Vivian hadn't accounted for, I was not fragile.
00:19She broke under Kaylin's hands. I did not.
00:22What she couldn't endure, I simply survived.
00:25Body learning the architecture of his need, learning to anticipate it.
00:29Relax. Only three years. My body will recover.
00:33Then I will give you enough gold to live well outside the mansion. Think about it.
00:38My whole family's safety rested in her hands. I had no choice.
00:42One hour later, Vivian and Kaylin finally rose.
00:45I returned to my quarters briefly, then went in to lay out the morning meal.
00:52Why are you dressed like that?
00:54I didn't know how to answer. I pressed my lips together.
00:57Kaylin bit. Hard.
00:59Darling, you've forgotten Selena is mute.
01:02I nodded quickly.
01:03Serving Vivian meant constant proximity to Kaylin, and she was terrified of exposure.
01:08So she declared me mute.
01:10The entire pack believed it.
01:13Your little mute is striking.
01:14Sad, almost, how pretty she is.
01:16And what exactly does my alpha mean by that?
01:19Has she caught your eye?
01:20I haven't blamed you for anything yet, and you're already turning on me.
01:25Kaylin had pushed too far last night.
01:27I'd wept myself hoarse, then bitten him.
01:30Hard.
01:31He'd walked through silver and hellfire to earn his title.
01:35Scars mapping him from throat to hip.
01:37He wouldn't care about a few teeth marks.
01:40This whole performance was foreplay.
01:42I don't know how much time passed.
01:45You insolent thing!
01:46You dared bite him?
01:47Are you challenging me?
01:49I had no time to defend myself.
01:51Vivian had me bound, dragged to the supply outbuilding.
01:54No food, no water.
01:56Kaylin had left for the border territories.
01:58However long he was gone, I stayed locked up.
02:01I was barely breathing when my sister found a way through.
02:05Briar had bribed the guard, slipped a bowl of broth under the door.
02:09She was my younger sister.
02:10Sister, what did you do to make the lady so angry?
02:13Briar, when will Kaylin be back?
02:15The guards say tonight, and he's going straight to the lady's room.
02:19What else was happening in the mansion?
02:21The alpha-haired, his wolf spirit is fading again.
02:23The pack healers say there's nothing left to do.
02:25They're preparing the rates.
02:26Lucian, the elder brother, cursed since birth, fading, never anchored to this world.
02:31He's never taken a mate.
02:32The matriarch doesn't want him to cross alone.
02:34She's looking for someone willing to complete a spirit bond.
02:38A spirit bond with a dying alpha heir meant grieving him forever.
02:42No high-ranking female would consent.
02:44Not even the lower-ranked handmaids.
02:46At dusk, they released me.
02:48I'd be needed that night.
02:49Selina, I was impulsive.
02:51I meant to release you hours ago, but things got away from me.
02:55Don't hold it against me.
02:56Of course not, my lady.
02:57My lady, it has been three years.
03:00When will I leave the pack mansion?
03:02You want to leave?
03:03Yes.
03:03My body hasn't healed.
03:05Kaelin still needs you.
03:06If you insist on leave, I'll simply use Briar instead.
03:08Your sisters.
03:09The voice, the build.
03:10Close enough.
03:11How old is she?
03:12Thirteen or fourteen?
03:14Then, could Kaelin at least give me a rank?
03:17Reaching for status now?
03:20If I wanted Kaelin to take a new mate, I have a hundred candidates.
03:24You would never make that list.
03:26Don't bother trying to go through Kaelin directly.
03:28You're a convenience to him.
03:32Even if you ended up in his quarters permanently, I could have you removed with a single word.
03:39But every un-mated female is supposed to be matched eventually.
03:43Eventually?
03:44Was I supposed to be her substitute?
03:46In bed?
03:47For the rest of my life?
03:49The gatekeeper's son is your age.
03:51When you turn sixteen next year, I'll arrange the match.
03:53The gatekeeper's son.
03:55A man with a child's mind and fists like hammers, hitting because it was the only thing he knew.
04:02Only by being bound to someone that broken would I remain useful and too far gone to threaten her.
04:08Kaelin returned to find me kneeling.
04:11You're home.
04:12You must be exhausted.
04:14This girl broke the crystal chalice from the Western Alliance.
04:17I've had her kneeling.
04:18Kaelin stepped over me without a glance.
04:21What's the status on my brother?
04:23I've asked every un-mated female in the pack.
04:26A spirit bond sounds like a curse to them.
04:28None of the young wolves will agree.
04:30What's there to agree about?
04:31Find a female, threaten someone she loves, and it's done.
04:34That kind of coercion would be hard to hide from your mother.
04:37Enough gold and fear will find a willing body.
04:41And if you handle this well, my mother might finally look at you differently.
04:49Every time Kaelin came back from the border, he spent the whole night making up for lost time.
04:54He was an alpha who'd spent weeks at war.
04:57He came home hungry, and he made that hunger my problem.
05:01That night, I gave him everything.
05:04Pushed past my own limits to match him.
05:06Why so eager tonight? Did you miss me?
05:09I rarely initiated.
05:11He noticed.
05:12Good girl.
05:14Near dawn, I came back to myself in pieces.
05:19Trying to run again?
05:23My wolf has always been sense-sensitive.
05:29I've known about your lady's little switch since the beginning.
05:32No wonder.
05:33He grew bolder every time, which meant he never held back.
05:37It was all for me.
05:39Then why won't you give me a rank?
05:41A rank?
05:43She's the one who brought you here.
05:44I'm not going to be the one to claim her handmaid.
05:47That would fracture our bond.
05:48She was right. A she-wolf, taken for free.
05:52Why give her a title?
05:53What grows in the dark, stays small.
05:57Speechless with joy?
05:58Thank you for your generosities, Alpha.
06:00I'm afraid I don't have the kind of luck to deserve it.
06:03You've shared my bed for years.
06:05Don't get ideas above your station.
06:06He didn't like greedy she-wolves.
06:09He had others.
06:10Bonded females.
06:11All with bloodlines.
06:13Gifts from allied packs.
06:14And yet, since Vivian came, he never touched them.
06:18The pack praised him for devotion.
06:20And he wore that praise like armor.
06:23A handmaid, born to serve, was never meant to stand beside him.
06:28The colder I became,
06:30I was born low.
06:32I don't deserve a rank.
06:33And I don't belong in your quarters.
06:35I only hope you and the lady are devoted to each other until the end.
06:38The next morning,
06:39Briar heard of Vivian's plan to marry me off to the gatekeeper's son.
06:42We served her faithfully.
06:43How can she be this cruel?
06:46That brute would be a slow death.
06:48The thought lingered, then twisted, into something darker.
06:51If I couldn't escape fate, I would choose it.
06:55I will take the spirit bond with Lucian.
06:57After a long pause, I dropped my eyes.
07:00I have a younger sister.
07:01Briar, I ask that she be transferred to your personal household matriarch.
07:05She's already part of this pack.
07:07I'll see to her for the rest of her life.
07:09Vivian's smile pulled thin.
07:12Mother, Briar came with my dowie pack.
07:14She's my bonded household.
07:15I'd hate to be ungenerous, but-
07:16She's a handmaid.
07:18Mother wants her.
07:19Give her over.
07:20Caelan's voice cut across hers, flat and final.
07:23The matriarch's expression had gone stone cold.
07:25Bring the bond papers.
07:29I will find Briar a secure place before I pass.
07:32You don't have to worry about her ever again.
07:35I hadn't expected the matriarch to think about her entire future.
07:39Moved beyond words.
07:41Thank you, matriarch.
07:43I promise to care for Lucian with everything I have.
07:45When the matriarch spoke of her eldest son, she couldn't stop the break in her voice.
07:50I was pregnant with Lucian during the Dark Coven War.
07:54The fear marked him at birth.
07:57He came into the world without breath.
08:00Without a wolf spirit.
08:01His father had returned victorious that same night, and brought someone with him from the
08:06deep forest.
08:07A shaman.
08:08The shaman's methods were outside anything the pack had seen.
08:11He brought Lucian back from the edge of nothing.
08:13It should have been a miracle, but the shaman warned them.
08:16Pulling a spirit back across that threshold was a transgression against the laws of wolf
08:21and moon.
08:22Lucian could live, but only for 30 years.
08:24No more.
08:25And so it had been.
08:26Lucian had grown up slight, unable to shift into warrior form.
08:30But razor sharp in mind.
08:31A natural strategist.
08:33A scholar.
08:34He'd won council honors young.
08:36But the older he got, the weaker his body became.
08:39Eventually, he stopped leaving his territory altogether, retreating to a lakeside cabin at
08:43the edge of the pack mansion.
08:45Since I had agreed to the spirit bond, I was to remain at his side.
08:49Word was that he didn't allow anyone to serve him.
08:51Just the shaman, who had stayed all these years.
08:54The shaman brought me into the cabin while Lucian was asleep.
08:57I looked at his face.
08:58His lashes trembled faintly with each shallow breath.
09:01He was two years older than Kaelin, 27.
09:04The brothers looked nothing alike.
09:05Kaelin was bronze and hard-edged from years of combat training.
09:09Lucian was fine-boned, pale as snow.
09:12Almost startlingly beautiful in a way that made you forget to breathe.
09:15I spent the afternoon learning his preferences.
09:18When the sun touched the horizon, Lucian finally woke.
09:21Either you drink this, or...
09:25Or what?
09:26The shaman had told me Lucian had refused medicine for six months.
09:30That was why he was hovering at the edge of nothing.
09:33At this rate, he wouldn't survive to spring.
09:40I'm a dead man.
09:44I'm a dead man.
09:48When I looked at him again, vivid color had bloomed across his face, like dawn breaking
09:54over frost.
09:55Those butterfly-wing lashes were trembling.
09:57With outrage, I thought, distantly, of every arrogant she-wolf Kaelin had ever teased into
10:03furious, helpless blushing.
10:05Lucian's expression was painfully similar.
10:07A prick of guilt moved through me.
10:09I forced my own pulse to slow, keeping my voice steady.
10:12If you won't drink, I'll be forced to do that again.
10:32Alpha hair, your color has improved over these past few days.
10:35Your skin isn't as cold as it was.
10:37That's the medicine working.
10:38Medicine is useless.
10:40The shaman works hard to brew it.
10:42If you pour it out every time, he'll be heartbroken.
10:46Watch.
10:47Testing the temperature alone takes constant checking to preserve the potency.
10:52I've only been doing it a few days and my hands already look like this.
10:56He pressed his lips together, said nothing, and drank the rest of the bowl without being
11:00asked.
11:01After that, he never made me beg him to drink his medicine again.
11:06Half a month later, the shaman gave the matriarch his report.
11:10Lucian had genuinely improved, no longer at death's edge.
11:15Could it be a final surge before the end?
11:18No.
11:18It's real healing.
11:20This one is responsible.
11:22I told you before, her wolf spirit signature is a natural compliment to his.
11:26She steadies him.
11:27The matriarch looked satisfied.
11:29When she turned to me, her eyes were almost tender.
11:32How has Selina been caring for you?
11:38She's been taking very good care of me.
11:43Alpha Lucian may not know, but when Selina was serving in my household, her skill at attending
11:49to Caelan was quite exceptional as well.
11:51Such a good servant.
11:55Answer me.
11:57You think you can play mute with me again?
12:05Silence won't save you.
12:08I don't need your voice to confirm it.
12:11One night, and I'd know for certain.
12:13Had he lost his mind?
12:16I spent three years with a woman, and she's going to be bonded to my brother.
12:21How dare you make fools of us both?
12:24Especially me!
12:26Would a rank at my side really be worse than grieving a dead man forever?
12:29Do you actually want to bond with a corpse?
12:34I just want to survive!
12:39If I didn't do this, she'd give me to someone who'd break me!
12:44A formal bond, even a broken one, would have made me untouchable!
12:49Useful to no one.
12:52Forced to stay her shadow forever.
12:54Before he could recover, I stomped hard on his foot and ran.
12:58I was still stumbling when I rounded the corner.
13:01What took you so long?
13:05I was a slave.
13:06Yet every night, I had to take Luna's place and sleep with the Alpha.
13:10On the bed, I begged him to mark me and make me one of his mates.
13:13Please, make me your wife.
13:17What are you thinking?
13:19You're nothing but a slave.
13:21I close my eyes.
13:23Every wolf in the pack knows.
13:25Caelan doesn't just love Lady Vivian.
13:27He worships her.
13:28So the next morning, I walked straight to the pack matriarch and kneeled before her.
13:33I volunteered to marry her eldest son, Caelan's dying brother.
13:36Firstly shocked.
13:37Then the pack matriarch's eyes filled with tears.
13:41After the ghost marriage is done, you'll have to keep Widowsville for your mate forever.
13:46My good child, have you truly thought this through?
13:50I will have no regrets.
13:52Alpha Caelan and Lady Vivian had gone deathly pale.
13:55On the full moon night, Caelan came to Vivian's room again.
13:58I watched them through the crack in the door, his voice low and honeyed, her laugh like silver.
14:04Vivian left to wash up, cheeks ruined with wanting.
14:07Before she went, she killed every candle, as always.
14:10An hour later, I stepped into the dark.
14:12His scent hit me first, and my traitorous body answered, heart slamming, skin tight.
14:18Why are you so cold?
14:20I was outside, watching the snow.
14:24Truth is, I'd been shivering at the threshold in a thin slip for an hour, waiting for her signal like
14:29a good little ghost.
14:32You smelled.
14:33A pause.
14:34My heart stopped.
14:35The tincture.
14:36So nice.
14:38His mouth found mine in the dark.
14:40His hardness reached my soul.
14:49Before dawn, I knelt at Vivian's feet and recited him.
14:53Every whisper.
14:54Every mark blooming purple on my throat.
14:56Her expression curdled.
14:58Then she walked back into his arms.
14:59Caelan caught her hair around one lazy finger.
15:02You've been sneaking out to find yourself another wolf.
15:05She swatted him, pouting prettily.
15:07As if she were the one.
15:08Vivian was beautiful, and chronically, devastatingly fragile.
15:12Caelan saw her at the spring hunt gathering.
15:15He fell instantly.
15:16Offered her the first mate rank before the night was over.
15:19Perfect together.
15:20Everyone said so.
15:21As her bonded handmaid, I was genuinely happy for them.
15:25Until their bonding night.
15:29Three nights in a row.
15:31No completed bond.
15:32No mating mark.
15:33Overnight, Vivian became the pack's favorite joke.
15:36Desperate, Vivian invented the switch.
15:39Every night, candles out, handmade substitutes.
15:42Masking tinctures rubbed into my skin until I smelled like her ghost.
15:46Of all her handmaids, only I was a viable double.
15:49The matriarch stared, then broke into astonished relief.
15:52She asked my name, my birth date, my bloodline.
15:55The pack shaman consulted the moon charts and looked up, nodding.
15:59This female's spirit signature aligns with the heirs in a way I have not seen in decades.
16:04She was born into hardship, which means she carries the kind of resilience that could anchor him.
16:09The bond will serve him well in the next life.
16:12Caelan and Vivian arrived quickly once word spread.
16:14They walked in together to find me sitting at the matriarch's feet, working the tension from her ankles.
16:19Caelan's voice came first, amused, sharp.
16:22This is the female who agreed to bond with my brother?
16:25Whoever's handmaid she is, she has a rare heart.
16:28Mother, you must reward her well.
16:29I turned and faced them.
16:31Caelan went very still.
16:32It's me.
16:33Alpha Caelan.
16:34Lady Vivian's.
16:37You're supposed to be mute.
16:39I can speak.
16:40My lady simply prefers I don't.
16:42Vivian's face turned to chalk.
16:44I didn't know your household contained such a loyal soul.
16:47But once this bond is sealed, you'll carry his grief for the rest of your days.
16:51Are you certain?
16:52I will never regret it.
16:53The hand hanging at Caelan's side curled into a fist.
16:57He stared at me like I had become something he didn't recognize.
17:00Child, tell me what you want.
17:02Silver, land, titles, anything I can grant is yours.
17:07I turned and looked at Vivian.
17:08She held her smile together.
17:10But she took half a step back.
17:11It was time for his medicine.
17:13I'd spent the afternoon learning to brew it from the shaman.
17:15So you're the female who plans to bond with my corpse?
17:18Yes.
17:19Get up.
17:20He picked up the bowl calmly.
17:25I don't want it.
17:27What are you going to do about it?
17:28Lucian looked up, a thread of provocation in his gaze.
17:31The shaman had told me Lucian was a person of pure instinct, all feeling, no armor, earned
17:37honors at 15, and had the makings of something extraordinary ahead of him.
17:41Then one evening, a hunting trip with Caelan ended with Lucian falling off the cliff and
17:46drown in the water, his wolf spirit seizing, and three days of unconsciousness.
17:51The matriarch had broken every servant in his household for failing him and sold the rest.
17:56Lucian didn't treat servants like livestock.
17:58He'd read too much and thought too hard to do that.
18:03Alpha hair.
18:06I genuinely can't force you.
18:08But since we're going to be bonded eventually, perhaps...
18:11I looked down at the dark liquid.
18:13Perhaps I should start exercising a mate's authority now.
18:16The air went very still.
18:19Is that how you speak to your future sister-in-law?
18:23Vivian, you are young, but that is no excuse for ignorance of pack law.
18:28Shut up!
18:30Stop embarrassing yourself!
18:33Days later...
18:34Did you hear about it?
18:36Vivian had found another substitute.
18:37She looked for a maid again?
18:39Not from the pack's own hand-hades.
18:40She'd bought a woman from outside, trained and shaped to match her voice and build exactly.
18:45How do you know?
18:45Because Caelan lit every lantern in the room that night, and when he saw what he saw, he beat woman
18:50half to death and threw her at Vivian's feet.
18:51Vivian had fainted.
18:52And then?
18:53He said if she refused to truly share his bed, he would never come to her rooms again.
18:57They're sleeping in separate dens now.
18:59Separate dens meant every wolf in the pack knew the bond was broken.
19:03No mate's devotion.
19:04No matriarch's approval.
19:06No pups.
19:06No wonder Vivian looked like she hadn't slept in a month.
19:14He looked fragile in the lake wind, unsteadying.
19:18I went back to get his cloak.
19:24Is it you?
19:29Was it always you?
19:30I smiled, walked over, and settled the cloak around his shoulders.
19:34But he simply brushed my hand away.
19:36Somehow he lost balance and fell.
19:37His chest had a severe bruise.
19:40Just leave me.
19:41I am not your burden.
19:45Lucian liked to sit there.
19:47Open a book in the shade.
19:49Why did you really agree to the spirit bond?
19:52I didn't want to be given to the given to the gatekeeper's son.
19:56I thought it would be something like that.
19:58What is it to guess that it would be like this?
20:01The shaman pressed a small wooden box into my hands.
20:04Should I start calling you maid of the alpha?
20:06Please don't.
20:08My future, most likely, was a silent room in a shrine, grieving him in his name until I followed.
20:14With the shaman gone, I took on more responsibility, including helping Lucian bathe.
20:22I watched his ears and tried not to smile.
20:25Had no one ever helped him bathe?
20:27Kaelin had always kept half a dozen female attendants for bathing.
20:30A younger version of me would have died of the blush alone.
20:34But I wasn't that innocent girl anymore.
20:36There was a phrase I'd found in one of his books.
20:38A broken moon.
20:39A she-wolf who'd been claimed and discarded.
20:42The text said that's what I was.
20:44What strange things are you reading now?
20:48I tucked it behind my back.
20:50I'd memorized a passage and presented it to him like a prize.
20:54Look at you. Impressive.
20:56You sound like you're humeering a child.
20:59How old are you?
21:01Eighteen.
21:02I have almost a decade on you.
21:04To me, you are a child.
21:07The shaman had introduced new compounds, performed old rituals at the edge of firelight,
21:13burned offerings, and whispered things I didn't catch.
21:16Speak a wish.
21:18You do it.
21:20I want you to be happy.
21:22What does that look like?
21:23Your body heals.
21:25You find a mate who deserves you.
21:26A pack of your own.
21:28A life that finally goes the way it should have.
21:31Do you mean that?
21:32Our eyes met.
21:34I looked away.
21:34Did I mean it?
21:35It didn't matter.
21:36What mattered was, the shaman's ritual apparently worked.
21:40Because Lucian decided he wanted to leave the cabin.
21:42I asked him where he wanted to go.
21:44He studied me for a long moment.
21:46There's a moon festival gathering tonight.
21:48I've heard the town lights the whole river.
21:50Festival fires were always burning somewhere.
21:53Nothing special.
21:53But since coming into Vivienne's household, I hadn't been to a single one.
21:57The longing had been sitting quietly in me for years.
22:00That night, a young noblewoman arrived with her escort.
22:03They said, used to getting everything she reached for.
22:06In the river of lantern light and moving bodies, she found Lucian in seconds.
22:10Loser buys dinner at the finest inn in the city.
22:12What do you say?
22:13And she walked straight up and challenged him to a game of darts.
22:16I'd forgotten who won.
22:17I only remember the brightness in her eyes.
22:20Lucian turned to look at me.
22:22If you'd like to go, I'll wait outside.
22:24I hadn't behaved like a servant in front of him in a long time.
22:28But there were others watching.
22:29She didn't wait.
22:30She stepped around me cheerfully and reached for Lucian's chair.
22:33I watched them move into the crowd.
22:35And I felt something leave me that I hadn't known was mine to lose.
22:38I stood in the cold for a very long time.
22:41Then I remembered.
22:41Today was my birthday.
22:43She was the regent's only daughter.
22:45Every door in the wolf world was open to her.
22:47When the regent and his mate arrived at the pack mansion to formally propose the match,
22:52the matriarch looked more shaken than pleased.
22:55Through Briar, I learned the truth.
22:56It wasn't love at first sight.
22:58She'd fallen for Lucian over a decade ago,
23:01back when he was a young scholar with fire in his eyes and a future everyone could see.
23:05She'd been carrying it ever since, refusing every other offer.
23:08Lucian's potential mating became the pack's entire focus.
23:12Even the news that Kaylin's quartermate had conceived was forgotten.
23:16If the match succeeded, the matriarch would have been overjoyed.
23:19But Lucian was already bound by the spirit bond.
23:21To take a living mate, the bond had to be dissolved.
23:24And so I knew exactly what I had to do.
23:27Just as I'd once knelt before the matriarch and volunteered,
23:30I came before her again.
23:33I'm willing to step aside.
23:35I want Lucian to have this.
23:38I'd had the shaman check their spirit signatures as well.
23:41They aligned perfectly.
23:42She was born to rank, polished in every art.
23:45And her love for Lucian had outlasted years of silence.
23:49If he died, she would grieve him faithfully.
23:51There was nothing more I could offer that she couldn't match.
23:54So, what do you want in return?
23:57Money?
23:58Is it still about status?
24:00The matriarch squeezed my hands and asked what I wanted in return.
24:03I pressed the gold I'd saved over two years into her palm.
24:07I asked to be released from the pack's bond records.
24:10I want to be a free wolf.
24:14Child, you could ask me for so much more.
24:17I held the bow and didn't move.
24:19Tears fell, one by one, onto the stone.
24:22Take me with you, okay?
24:25Outside the pack Paoshin, life was uncertain and hard.
24:29Inside, with the matriarch's protection, you would be safe.
24:33Stay, serve well, don't make enemies.
24:36The rest would come.
24:39Briar wept and pressed gold into my hands anyway.
24:42On the morning I left, many of the other handmaids came to see me off.
24:46The shaman also walked towards me in the crowd.
24:49May your ancestors guide your path.
24:53I patted my shoulder and then walked towards the crowd.
24:59I turned around and walked towards the door.
25:01But in the crowd I saw Karen also there.
25:04Kaelin grabbed me to the corner.
25:06He caged me against the wall and looked at me like he wanted to devour me.
25:10Say the word and I'll take you as a formal mate.
25:15Serve me like you used to and I'll give you rank above the others.
25:20I stared at him for a long time.
25:27Don't look at me like that.
25:30What?
25:31You think Lucian's gonna come running after you?
25:33You're deluding yourself.
25:36He's probably not even thinking of you.
25:38Once his body improved, he didn't need you anymore.
25:41You were useful and now you're spare.
25:43And don't expect him to remember you in a year.
25:45He didn't even come to see you off.
25:47That tells you exactly where you rank to him.
25:51Something in my chest seized.
25:52The truth was, Lucian and I had been in a cold war for weeks.
25:55It had started on the way home from the festival.
25:58If I was happy.
26:02Yes, the warmth vanished from Lucian's face.
26:05Happy about the fireworks?
26:07No.
26:07Watching you walk with her.
26:09You look like you belong together.
26:10My wish is starting to work.
26:11That made me happy.
26:12You see me with another female and that's what makes you happy?
26:14She's extraordinary.
26:16She might become the Pax Future First Luna.
26:17Of course I'm happy.
26:18Selina.
26:20I didn't know you could be so heartless.
26:22My parents had died years ago in the household where I was born into service.
26:26I had no home to return to.
26:28I'd planned to head south, find a city where no one knew my name.
26:32But the second Caelan's and Vivian's faces floated up behind my eyes,
26:36I was on my feet, booking passage on the first river ferry south before I'd finished the thought.
26:43Property deeds.
26:45Golds, a house, a plot of land.
26:47Somewhere in the south.
26:49I tried to remember when the shaman had touched my bag.
26:52He'd had his hands on it during the send-off, but where had he gotten it?
26:56The ferry listed suddenly.
26:57I nearly went over the rail.
27:01I scrambled upright and found boots surrounding me on three sides.
27:05Then I was bound, carried ashore, and pushed into a carriage.
27:10When the blindfold came down...
27:16Vivian, smiling.
27:18I couldn't stop the bitter laugh from escaping.
27:21Briar had been right.
27:22For all the years I'd served her, and this was still where we ended up.
27:26They brought out women with strong hands to deal with me.
27:29The blows were professional and thorough.
27:31She'd grown thinner since I last saw her.
27:33The delicate elegance that had once made her untouchable now just made her look breakable.
27:38What it didn't do was protect her inside the pack.
27:42I used your body as a convenience, and you had the nerve to find your own way out.
27:47Ungrateful.
27:48Traitorous.
27:49Have you forgotten what you swore?
27:52Loyal service.
27:54Always.
27:55Loyal service.
27:56She wasn't wrong.
27:57But loyalty is a two-way bond, and she had never honored her half.
28:01Waited for the anger to burn out so I could leave.
28:04I overestimated her capacity for mercy.
28:06The first day, only the hitting.
28:08Look at me.
28:10The second day, she used silver-tipped needles on my hands.
28:15The third day, she locked me in the holding den beneath the estate.
28:18I found my parents' remains there.
28:20For a moment, just one, I genuinely wanted to stop fighting.
28:24The young guard outside pulled me up before I could follow the thought all the way.
28:28Delina, come back!
28:29Please!
28:30You saved me!
28:31Do I know you?
28:32Years ago, a bracelet went missing in the ladies' rooms.
28:36They were going to use me as the culprit.
28:38You figured out who really took it, and you bought me enough time to prove it.
28:41I kept all my fingers because of you.
28:43You're one of the kindest people I've ever known.
28:46Why is she doing this to you?
28:48Because I wasn't loyal enough.
28:51What's happening at the pack mansion?
28:53The alpha-haired.
28:55Is he truly going to bond with the regent's daughter?
28:57The matriarch is frantic.
28:59The whole bonding is off.
29:00The regent's family pulled their daughter out the night his wolf spirit nearly went dark completely.
29:04She agreed to cancel it?
29:07She's never been this close to real death before.
29:09They say she ran.
29:10Selene, please stop thinking about them.
29:13Think about yourself.
29:14You have to survive long enough to be rescued.
29:16Will you let me help you?
29:17Please help me bury my parents.
29:19Is there anything else I can do for you after that?
29:21I need you to find a small wooden box.
29:23You buried my parents.
29:25I'll carry that gratitude into whatever comes next.
29:29On the fifth evening, Vivian returned.
29:31She examined her nails, as if nothing else mattered.
29:34I could barely hold my head up.
29:36You're still alive.
29:38Heaven must want you to suffer longer.
29:40Begging me to stop?
29:42Don't bother.
29:43I wasn't begging.
29:45I was cursing her.
29:46Quietly.
29:47Steadily.
29:48The rope around my neck tightened.
29:49I let out a slow breath.
29:51Finally.
29:51A clean ending.
29:53It pulled taut.
29:54Tighter.
29:55Until the air was gone.
29:56Then, it went slack.
29:58A second cruelty?
30:00Another method?
30:01Noise poured in from every direction.
30:03Someone was calling my name.
30:05Someone was in the water.
30:06Selina!
30:07Selina!
30:12I'm sorry.
30:14I'm sorry.
30:15Please don't leave me.
30:17I was lifted.
30:19Carried.
30:19Fast.
30:20Too fast.
30:21And then I hit a cold chest and stayed there.
30:24Whoever held me dropped to their knees.
30:26Their arms locked around me like I might disappear.
30:32Vivian, where are you?
30:33I am here.
30:35I am here.
30:36I thought I had lost you.
30:37Selina.
30:39I'm so sorry.
30:41I should have found you sooner.
30:45Lucian brought me back to the lakeside cabin.
30:47The shaman had prepared a medicinal bath.
30:50Something old.
30:51Something meant for deep wounds.
30:52Lucian washed me himself.
30:54Every new injury he found made the skin around his eyes darken.
30:58Deeper.
30:59Redder.
31:00In the blur between waking and sleep,
31:02I felt like I was drifting.
31:04Held up by careful hands in warm water.
31:07Rocking.
31:08Gently.
31:09The last thing I remembered was a soft bed rising up to catch me.
31:13And my arms closing around it.
31:16I slept for a very long time.
31:26Where's Lucian?
31:27He kept watch over you for days.
31:29I added something to his tea.
31:30He's out.
31:31Is he having an episode?
31:33His wolf spirit?
31:34He's been destroying himself since you left.
31:36His wolf didn't want to be steady.
31:38I couldn't do much.
31:39You were the only person keeping him anchored.
31:41That was never me.
31:42Don't cry.
31:43He's alive.
31:44And he won't die before 30.
31:46I made sure of that much.
31:48What happens at 30?
31:50Does the bond snap?
31:51He was always going to die early.
31:53You know this.
31:54If he weren't fated for early death,
31:55you two would never have found each other.
31:57I sat very still.
31:59Something inside me was splitting apart.
32:02Lucian woke to find me staring into nothing.
32:06What's wrong?
32:06His voice came out rough with sleep.
32:08I wiped my face, said nothing.
32:11My fingers rested against his throat,
32:13feeling his pulse.
32:15I'm going to kiss you.
32:17Say yes or no.
32:19You were a lot less polite the first time.
32:26His mouth was cold,
32:27and his breath against mine
32:29was like a thread of warmth in a blizzard,
32:32brief and so easy to lose.
32:37Lucian, I love you.
32:42I love you too.
32:49I never expected to fall in love
32:50with someone within such short life.
32:55Neither did I.
32:57Then the shaman came back.
32:59He returned three nights later,
33:00moving with purpose,
33:02and sat across from us.
33:04I've been doing a great deal of thinking.
33:06That's usually ominous.
33:08The curse on you,
33:09the life debt your father made
33:11with the witch clan,
33:12it was sealed with sacrifice.
33:13Specifically,
33:14the sacrifice of a wolf spirit.
33:17Sacrifice can be answered with sacrifice.
33:19Or with something equal and opposite.
33:21A bond freely chosen.
33:23A mating bond.
33:24A true one.
33:25Not a spirit bond with a corpse.
33:27A living, breathing,
33:29voluntary mating bond.
33:30Freely given,
33:31both sides willing,
33:32under the full moon.
33:34If the bond takes hold,
33:36the original sacrifice is fulfilled differently.
33:39Life for life.
33:41But instead of taking,
33:43it gives.
33:44The curse breaks.
33:46Has this worked before?
33:47I believe it will.
33:51Yes.
33:53The next few days passed in controlled chaos.
33:56The matriarch convened a pack circle.
33:58Vivian's crimes had not gone unnoticed.
34:00The poisoning of Kaylin's quartermate
34:02and the unborn pup had been confirmed.
34:04By pack law,
34:05that was grounds for exile.
34:07Vivian was removed.
34:08Quietly.
34:09Finally.
34:10The regent's daughter came to the cabin one more time.
34:13He told me at the festival,
34:14you know.
34:15The night we went to dinner.
34:16What to say?
34:18He talked about you for three hours straight without realizing it.
34:21I'm sorry I was slow to understand.
34:23Her expression unreadable.
34:25I didn't know what to say.
34:26She stepped forward and squeezed my hand once.
34:29Don't let him die.
34:31Then she was gone.
34:36Kaylin came to the cabin the night before the ritual.
34:38He stood in the doorway
34:40and for the first time in the years I've known him,
34:43he looked genuinely lost.
34:45My brother.
34:47He's going to be alright?
34:49The shaman believes so.
34:52I never saw you.
34:54Do you know?
34:55For three years,
34:57I've actually never given you a proper look.
35:00For whatever it's worth, I'm sorry.
35:02I thought about everything I could say.
35:05What I said was,
35:08take care of yourself, Kaylin.
35:10He nodded,
35:12turned,
35:13walked away.
35:14It wasn't forgiveness.
35:16Not yet.
35:17But it was a beginning.
35:19The full moon rose over the lake like a white flame.
35:22The shaman built the circle at the water's edge.
35:25Silver dust,
35:26wolf herbs,
35:27old fire.
35:28Lucian stood at the center.
35:29He'd refused the chair tonight.
35:31He was standing on his own,
35:32in the moonlight,
35:33and the sight of him,
35:35pale and slight,
35:36and stubbornly,
35:37impossibly upright,
35:39hit me somewhere I didn't have words for.
35:41The shaman's voice rose over the water,
35:43speaking old words in the witch clan's tongue,
35:46the language of the curse
35:47that had been turned,
35:48tonight,
35:49into something else.
35:50He looked at me with those moth-winged lashes,
35:52and that expression that always meant he'd run out of arguments,
35:55and was trying not to show how much he felt.
35:57Selene,
35:59you don't have to.
36:00I know.
36:03I might still...
36:04I know that too.
36:07And what are you doing?
36:10Choosing.
36:11The shaman's voice peaked.
36:13The circle ignited.
36:14Not fire, exactly.
36:16Something older.
36:17Silver blue,
36:18rising from the water's surface.
36:20I felt the pull of it in my chest.
36:22Not pain.
36:23Not fear.
36:24Something more like...
36:25recognition.
36:26Lucian's hand tightened on mine,
36:28and I felt the moment it happened.
36:30A snap,
36:31deep in the core of me,
36:32like a lock giving way.
36:34Like something that had been held closed for 30 years,
36:36finally opening.
36:38Lucian made a sound I'd never heard from him before.
36:40Not pain.
36:41The opposite of pain.
36:43He dropped to his knees in the silver circle,
36:45and his wolf,
36:46his wolf spirit,
36:47which I had never seen,
36:49which he had never been able to fully call,
36:51tore out of him with a howl that shook the lake.
36:54White,
36:55enormous,
36:56blazing like a comet above the water.
36:58He threw his head back and howled again.
37:00The sound broke over the forest,
37:03over the pack mansion,
37:04over every territory for miles,
37:06and from far away,
37:08from every direction at once,
37:09howls began to answer.
37:11The shaman wept.
37:12I didn't realize it until I saw his shoulders shaking.
37:15Lucian's wolf settled around him like a second skin.
37:18The color returned to his face.
37:20Not the brief flush of fever,
37:22but real warmth,
37:23steady,
37:24and permanent.
37:25He touched his own hands like he was checking they were real.
37:28Then he looked at me,
37:29and his eyes,
37:30those beautiful,
37:31exhausted,
37:32fighting to stay open eyes,
37:34were the clearest I'd ever seen them.
37:38Selena.
37:39Just my name.
37:40The way he said it cracked something open in me.
37:43I pressed my face against his chest,
37:45and stayed there for a long, long time.
37:47His heartbeat was strong,
37:49steady,
37:50warm,
37:51not borrowed time.
37:54Just him.
37:55The matriarch came to the lake the next morning.
37:58She took one look at Lucian,
38:00standing in the early light,
38:01no chair,
38:02no shawl,
38:03real color in his face,
38:04and she sat down on the nearest bench
38:06and didn't move for several minutes.
38:08How?
38:09Thanks to Selena,
38:10who sacrificed herself willingly.
38:13She was a good girl.
38:14The shaman explained what had happened.
38:17Then she reached out
38:19and drew me to sit beside her,
38:20as she'd done before.
38:21What do you want?
38:24I once hoped my sister would be safe
38:25and that I could be free.
38:27But now,
38:28all I want is for Lucian
38:30to return as leader,
38:31safe and happy.
38:33It happened at the next full moon.
38:36Briar stood beside me.
38:39It's already more than enough.
38:41You have a thread.
38:42Right there.
38:43Hold.
38:44Briar.
38:46What?
38:53Lucian was waiting at the lake's edge.
38:56He'd learned to stand like he meant it.
38:58May your life together be filled with love,
39:01laughter, and happiness.
39:03May your home always be warm
39:05and your hearts always full.
39:07I had survived every single thing
39:10and I was here.
39:11Free,
39:12loved,
39:13his mate,
39:14and mine.
39:20Selina,
39:21I'm not going to die.
39:22Bye.
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