Chapter 3

Nobody in the circle moved.

The Alpha of Grimfrost was lying flat on his back in the snow. His own mate had put him there, in the middle of his own mating rite.

Somewhere behind me, a pup started to giggle. Its mother clapped a hand over its mouth.

I didn't care who was watching.

Last life, he went on that birthday run the night after his rite with Juliet. He went every year after that, even when it landed on their anniversary. He never said a word about it. My sister waited fifty years for that explanation.

I wasn't going to wait one night.

If he still wanted to run with her, fine. I'd fight him first. Then I'd pack my saddlebag and ride south before the snow got any deeper.

The Calder girls weren't that desperate for a mate.

"Dane!" Lacey dropped to her knees beside him. "Are you hurt?"

She turned on me, her face red. "How could you? He's your Alpha. You can't just—"

Dane sat up.

He brushed the snow off his shoulder and looked at me for a long moment. I couldn't read his face at all.

Then he stood, walked past Lacey, and took my hand.

"Tomorrow," he said, "you run with us."

I stared at him.

Lacey stared at him too. "Dane... what?"

He didn't answer her.

Her lip shook. "Fine. I don't want to talk to you ever again."

She turned and ran out of the circle. Her hurt rolled through the pack bond one more time. I watched the wolves around us flinch.

Dane leaned down until his mouth was near my ear.

"Let's finish the rite," he said quietly. "Then I'll explain everything."

The rest went fast.

Dane spoke my name to the moon. A beat of silence. Then one of the she-wolves who had walked me in threw her head back and howled.

The rest of the pack joined her.

It wasn't the loudest howl I'd ever heard. But it came.

An hour later, I was sitting alone on the bed in the Alpha's den, hitting the fur blanket with my fist.

What was that back there? He holds my hand once, says one nice thing, and I'm supposed to forget everything?

Not a chance.

The door opened. Dane walked in.

I folded my arms. "Let me make something clear."

He stopped.

"I hate men who can't decide who they belong to. If you want Lacey on Monday and some other girl on Tuesday, tell me now. You haven't marked me yet. I can still ride home."

He frowned. "Your grandfather promised you to me. I took you as my mate. I'll take responsibility for you."

I laughed in his face.

"Responsibility? Is that what this is?" I stood up. "The pact says I'm your mate. It doesn't say I have to let you mark me. If this works, it works. If it doesn't, we break the bond and I go home."

His jaw tightened.

He paced across the den and back. Twice.

Then he sat down on the edge of the bed and reached for my hand. I pulled it away. He reached again and held on.

"Jessa." His voice was rough. "There's nothing between me and Lacey. There never was. There never will be."

I said nothing.

"I want this," he said. "I want a real life with you. Not because of the pact."

He looked down at our hands.

"I'm not good with words. I give orders through the mind-link all day. I forget how to talk out loud." He swallowed. "If something I do makes you angry, tell me. I'll change it."

The firelight was on his face. He looked completely serious.

Something warm crawled up my neck. I hated that.

"Fine," I said, like it didn't matter. "I have a temper too. If you can handle that, we're even."

The corner of his mouth moved. Almost a smile.

That annoyed me more than anything else he'd done all day.

So I grabbed him by the collar and kissed him.

He went still for one second. Then his hand slid around my waist and pulled me in.

The Tyrant of the North kissed like he fought. He didn't hold back.

When we broke apart, we were both breathing hard. His forehead dropped against mine. Then his mouth moved down to the side of my neck.

I felt his canines lengthen against my skin.

He stopped there. He didn't bite.

"Jessa," he said, very low. "Can I?"

I pinched his arm, hard. Is that really something you need to ask right now?

He laughed softly against my throat. "Sorry."

I closed my eyes.

Then he froze.

A few seconds later, he pulled away from my neck. His face had turned to stone again.

"That was my Beta," he said. "Lacey left a note. She's gone."

"Gone where?"

"The note says she doesn't want to be a burden on the pack anymore." He was already reaching for his shirt. "She says she's going to be with her father."

Her father. The fallen warrior.

He stood and pulled the shirt over his head. "Go to sleep. I'll be back."

My mark. My mating night. And he was walking out the door for her.

I grabbed the blanket and sat up.

"Your pack has two hundred wolves, Dane. Two hundred noses. And it has to be you? Do you even know what tonight is?"