A night to remember
DAMON’S POV
I wasn’t sure of what I was feeling and why I was feeling like this. This was supposed to be a night meant for me and Nyra, it was the night I was supposed to finally make my union with her official and yet I felt a presence that sat so heavily on my chest.
It began as a pressure in my chest sharp, sudden, like something stirring where it had been buried too long. I tightened my grip on the glass in my hand and forced my expression into calm as the Great Hall roared with celebration around me.
The Night of Selection had drawn every Alpha worth noticing. Music echoed off stone walls, banners hung heavy from the rafters, and eyes tracked my every movement. This night was built on expectation. It was not meant for disruption.
Then I saw her.
Elodie stood near the outer columns, half-lost in shadow, dressed in the dull grey and looking like she didn’t belong. She carried a serving tray, her head lowered, her steps careful and practiced. She had mastered the art of being unnoticed. My chest tightened again.
No.
Not her.
I looked away at once. Mate bonds did not always awaken together. Sometimes one wolf felt it first. Sometimes…rarely, it faded before the other ever became aware. I told myself she wouldn’t feel it. If she didn’t, this could still be controlled. I forced my attention back to the hall. To the Alphas weighing my authority. To the alliances that required securing. Tonight was about order, not destiny.
Nyra waited near the dais.
She looked exactly as a future Luna should composed, radiant, unassailable. Her presence steadied the room simply by existing within it. Choosing her was not desire. It was necessity. Behind me, the air shifted. I turned just as Elodie lifted her head.
Our eyes met and the bond snapped into place with brutal force. Air left my lungs as pain flared through my chest, my wolf surging forward in furious recognition. Elodie froze. I watched awareness bloom in her eyes, raw and unshielded. Her breath caught, her fingers tightening around the tray as something dangerously close to hope crossed her face.
She felt it.
Damn it.
The pull between us sharpened, alive and insistent. Instinct demanded movement—distance erased, claim asserted, law obeyed.
I refused it.
If I hesitated, someone would notice. She would step forward. The bond would expose itself, and control would slip from my grasp. I straightened, drawing on discipline, on authority, on everything I had built. I raised my hand, and the hall quieted. I did not look at Elodie again.
I turned to Nyra.
“I have made my decision,” I said, my voice steady despite the violence inside my chest. “Tonight, before pack and moon and all your respectable alphas, I choose my mate.”
Nyra stepped closer, her smile calm, assured, as her hand slid into mine.
“I choose Nyra,” I continued. “As my future Luna.”
The bond howled its protest. Pain lanced through me, sharp and accusing, but I ignored it. I had chosen reason over instinct. Power over weakness. Across the hall, I felt Elodie falter. The bond recoiled injured, but unbroken. I accepted the pack’s approval, acknowledged the elders, fulfilled the ritual while tracking Elodie from the corner of my vision.
She did not cry. She stepped back, then turned away. She was leaving. Cold fear cut through me. If she crossed the boundary with the bond awakened, it would not sever cleanly. It would take something with it control, leverage, stability. I excused myself from Nyra without explanation and followed.
I caught Elodie just beyond the archway, where music thinned and torchlight dimmed. She faced me, her expression painfully composed.
“I won’t stay,” she said quietly. “I understand now.”
The bond pulled hard between us, aching and unresolved. I reached out and closed my hand around her wrist, ignoring the electricity that shot down my back.
“You’re not going anywhere,” I said, she wanted to protest but I didn’t give her a chance to.
Her eyes widened not with fear, but realization. As my grip tightened, one truth settled with grim certainty. This night would not be remembered for the mate I chose but for the one I refused to release.
