Chapter 3

I had summoned the Northern Court riders to escort me home.

I walked toward them with my travel case in one hand and the healer's report in the other. Darius followed me into the yard.

"No one is leaving," he ordered.

Magistrate Helena Crow removed her silver hood. "Lady Vale is under the protection of the Northern Court. You rejected her. You no longer decide where she lives."

The title moved through the wolves.

Lady Vale.

Seraphine came outside, still gripping her wedding contracts. Leo stood behind her, watching Darius with frightened eyes.

Darius lowered his voice. "Lyra, come inside. We can settle this without an audience."

"You chose an audience when you rejected me."

"That rejection isn't complete."

I stopped.

Under ancient wolf law, an Alpha could speak the rejection, but the bond remained until his mate accepted it.

Darius had always called the rule meaningless. He believed no woman would willingly endure the pain of severing a fated bond.

Now he used it as a chain.

"You're still bound to me," he said. "So are the twins. The court cannot take my children out of Blackridge."

Behind him, Seraphine folded the wedding contracts against her chest. Leo touched the heir's sash at his shoulder and moved closer to her.

Darius didn't look back at either of them. He held out his hand to me.

"Come inside. After the wedding, you can live at the Alpha residence. The twins will carry my name, and no one will question their place in the pack."

He spoke as if Seraphine, Leo, the twins, and I were pieces he could arrange until his life looked the way he wanted.

"No."

His jaw tightened. "You won't accept the rejection. Breaking a fated bond could destroy your wolf, and you would never risk the twins just to punish me."

"I wouldn't teach my children to stay where they weren't chosen. So I couldn't stay either."

I handed my travel case to Helena and walked toward the stone platform in the center of the yard.

More wolves poured out of the hall. The same people who had watched Darius reject me now gathered around us.

"Lyra, stop," Darius ordered.

I stepped onto the platform and turned to face him.

"You rejected me before your entire pack. They should hear my answer."

His expression remained hard. He still believed I would back down.

"Think carefully," he said. "Once you accept, there is no taking it back."

"I know."

I placed one hand over the two heartbeats inside me.

Then I lifted my chin.

"I, Lyra Vale, accept Alpha Darius Thorne's rejection."

For one heartbeat, the mate bond went silent.