The moon ceremony was supposed to give Nora a name beside hers.
Instead, it gave her silence.
Dane stood before the pack with the silver mark glowing at his throat. He did not look at her when he said the sentence.
"I reject the bond."
Pain moved through Nora's ribs like a hand closing around glass.
The elders waited for her to fall. The women who had envied her waited for her to beg.
Nora did neither.
She pressed two fingers to the fading mark on her wrist and bowed once.
"Accepted," she said.
The rival alpha at the edge of the clearing began to smile.