Chapter 4

The post updated.

My finger clicked on it before I could even think.

"Honestly? I've already given her some disgusting gifts. Indirectly, of course."

"Like that guardian rune bracelet she never takes off."

"I was in a bad place. Her mate and I got a little wild one night.

One of my fangs snapped — still wet with my blood — and got lodged inside one of the stones.

He didn't even care. He just had it set into the bracelet and gave it to her anyway."

My eyes shot to my vanity.

The bracelet Kyle gave me for the Winter Solstice.

He told me he'd traveled three thousand miles alone through a frozen forest,

and prayed to the Spirit of the Mountain to have it blessed for me.

But Lyra wasn't done.

"Oh, and the Solstice this year? He didn't go on any spirit quest.

He took me to the Blackstone Pack. To meet his parents."

"This silver family crest I'm wearing? His mother gave it to me."

"He said since he couldn't give me the Mating Bond,

he had to make it up to me in other ways."

My mind just went blank.

His mother's face flashed in my head. Warm. Apologetic.

I remembered her exact words from when Kyle brought me to meet her last year.

"Sweetheart, it's a Blackstone Pack tradition.

This wolf-fang crest is passed down to our son's future mate.

To our future daughter."