Page 64 of Wolf's Reckoning
It wouldn’t be me.
I speared a piece of meat, lifted it, and held it out to him. His gaze flicked from the fork to my face, unreadable as ever, and for a heartbeat, I thought he might refuse. Instead, he leaned in—slow, deliberate—and took the bite from the fork, teeth brushing against metal.
The room exhaled.
He didn’t break eye contact as he chewed. Bastard probably thought this counted as foreplay.
“Your turn,princess,” he murmured when he swallowed.
I snatched the fork back before he could say anything else, took a bite without flinching, and forced myself to swallow even though my throat felt like it was packed with gravel.
Killian made a quiet comment to one of the pack sentries. Something about the flavor. I didn’t hear it. My pulse was a steady drum in my ears.
A warm hand covered mine, and the fork was taken from me. Wolfe lightly stabbed a piece of meat with a thick strip of fat clinging to it. Wolfe seemed to remember that I hated the taste of soft fat in my human form. The fucker didn’t hide the glee in his eyes as he held it out to me.
“For you, mywedded mate.”
I hate you.
Even though I didn’t speak out loud, the sly, victorious smile he gave me let me know he knew exactly what I was thinking. To anyone watching, we looked composed. Civil. Maybe even compatible.
But inside? I was seething. I leaned forward, my hands in fists, when he playfully pulled the fork back a bit, but I snatched at the meat. The thick white fat lay heavy on my tongue, and I swallowed the piece whole, hoping to theGoddess that I wouldn’t choke, or throw up, as I resisted the urge to down my cup of water.
Wolfe drew back, his low chuckle grating on my nerves. He sat beside me like he owned the damn chair. Like he belonged here. Like he hadn’t just inserted himself into this pack.
Across the room, I saw Adair watching me. She smiled at me, and I forced myself to be steady. Calm. I could do this.
I lifted my cup. “To Blueridge Hollow,” I said clearly.
The hall answered in a low rumble, voices overlapping. I didn’t look at Wolfe again. If I did, I was afraid the rage might turn into something worse. Something hotter. Somethinghungrier. I wasn’t ready for that. I would never be ready for that.
Instead, I watched my pack as they celebrated the Binding of two shifters they knew. My father sat at the other end of the table. I’d looked over at him more than once, and as the feast progressed, I wasn’t sure if the table or the chair was the only thing holding him up. Lewis hovered nearby, not quite ready to grab him, but close.
The scraping of a chair against wood made me look his way again. Alpha Malric stood on legs that were too shaky.
“Today is a day of significance,” my father said, voice low but resonant, a grave smile tugging at his mouth. “The pack celebrates not just a bond, but a beginning.” He paused, his breath hitching like it cost him something. “My daughter—yourdaughter of the Hollow—has been joined in union with a strong leader. One raised by this land. One known to us. Once lost to distance, now returned.”
He turned toward Wolfe.
“Wolfe, of the Stonefang Pack, is no longer a guest in the Hollow. As declared by me, witnessed by our druid, and blessed beneath Luna’s gaze—Wolfe is now the leader of Blueridge Hollow.”
The silence that followed was thick. Sacred. But I couldn’t breathe.He had declared it to everyone. My heart was racing, and I saw all of them looking at Wolfe in…admiration. A few with surprise, but all of them,allof them, lookedpleased.
Then my father brought their attention back to him, voice steady and steeped in memory. “By claw and vow, by blood and stone—so it is bound.”
The murmur ran through the hall. “By claw and vow, by blood and stone—so it is bound.”
I jerked when a hand landed on my shoulder. I looked up to see the druid. “It is time.”
On legs that felt like lead, I rose from the table and followed the druid from the hall. I knew Wolfe was only a few feet behind me, and laughter and calls of goodwill followed him. Followedhim. All that followed me was silence.
He fell into step beside me as we walked. But he kept his words to himself, and I was grateful. I was scared, I was barely hanging on, and our union, no matter the politicalconvenienceof it, still had to have the night ceremony.
The forest at night was quiet in that way that wasn’t quiet at all. Crickets. Wind through leaves. The slow creak of old branches bearing ancient secrets. The kind of quiet that felt…watched.
I stood barefoot in the ritual circle, toes sunk into the mossy earth, a shiver running up my spine that had nothing to do with the cool wind.
Wolfe stood across from me. Arms folded. Eyes sharp. Still in his ceremonial black. He hadn’t said a word since the feast.
