Her eyes narrow slightly. “It was her. Wasn’t it? The one with the hair like fire?”
“Yeah, it’s her.” My voice is rough, almost unrecognizable. “When I realized it was her, I just left. Ilefther.”
She tilts her head, unimpressed. “Typical male.”
“Tala.” My tone warns her I’m not in the mood, but the smirk lingers at the corner of her mouth.
“Sorry,” she says, schooling her expression. “You’re going through something. I should be sympathetic.”
I glance at her sidelong as her grin widens. It’s almost giddy. Her cheeks are flushed, hair tousled. “You’re smiling? Didyoufind a mate?”
Her cheeks flush deeper, “Maybe, but this is not about me. It’s about you. What are you going to do about this mess you’ve made?”
“There’s nothing to do tonight,” I say, even though the truth is I’d give anything to track Ember down right now and make her listen. “I’ve trusted the trials this far. Two more days of trials left. I’ll have to prove myself by then.”
“Then you’d better hope she’s still willing to be proven to,” Tala says lightly, but there’s an unspoken weight beneath it.
Before I can answer, a shadow breaks off from the thinning crowd. Olcan. His smirk is already in place, smug and knowing. Koa not far behind him.
“Thorn,” he drawls, voice slick and it doesn’t go unnoticed that he’s not addressing me by Alpha any longer. “Interesting performance in there. Can’t say I’ve ever seen someone walk away from a willing female before.”
My body goes still, the kind of stillness that means danger. “Careful.”
“Why? She’s not yours yet,” Koa remarks. “No mark. No claim.”
Olcan’s eyes glitter, sharp and taunting. “And if she is your mate… Well, then you’ve got competition.”
I step into his space, my shadow swallowing him whole. “Touch her again, Olcan, and I will tear your throat out. Trial rules or not.”
He doesn’t flinch. “You’d have to beat me first.” His gaze flickers — wolf to wolf — and I know exactly what he’s suggesting.
A Challenge.
I smile, but there’s no warmth in it. “I’ll bury you.”
He leans in, close enough for me to smell the stale copper of blood on his breath. “We’ll see whose name she moans last.”
Before I can lunge, Tala’s hand clamps down on my shoulder. “Not here,” she warns.
Olcan grins wider, knowing exactly what he’s doing. He and his brother walks out of the temple like he hasn’t just signed his own death warrant.
I watch them go, my jaw aching from how hard I’m clenching it. Two more days. Two days until I make Ember mine.
Olcan will regret ever speaking her name because if he so much as looks at her again, the gods themselves won’t be able to stop me.
Chapter 18
EMBER
The nervous energy is an electric pulse tonight. It crackles across the lines of bodies crowding outside the temple doors, brushing against my skin like static before a storm. Blindfolds shift in eager hands. My own feels like lead, heavy with the weight of what’s about to happen.
When the doors groan open, the crowd surges inside. I keep to the back, slipping my blindfold on as the familiar ancient scent of ivy greets me. The power of the moonlight slides over my sensitive skin, begging my wolf to break free.
“Welcome,” the priest calls, his voice dissipating into the open sky above. “Tonight’s trial is another new trial honoring the one hundredth year. The priests have decided to call it ‘Trust.’ As trust is an integral part of any union. A great mate must be loyal, faithful, and true. The trial is simple. At the stroke of midnight, the Luna Blossoms will open, filling this temple with their spores. These spores lower ambition, strip deceit, and reveal only truth. Find your scented mate, take off your blindfold, and get your truths. Tonight you will find out if these are truths you canlive with?”
His words hang heavy in the moonlight streaming down through open sky, soaking into my skin like sunlight.
“Place your blindfolds on.” Darkness greets me as I slip mine over my eyes. It’s not like I need it. I know who my mate is.