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We sit in silence for a moment, side by side, letting the river speak for us. I can feel the bond humming gently between us now, no longer frayed or strained. It’s whole and undeniably alive.

Alina stares out at the water. “Noah asked me if we’re staying here.”

My heart skips. “And what did you tell him?”

“I told him yes.” She glances sideways at me, shrugging as if it should’ve been obvious to me. “He seems happy. Your mother taught him how to make honey cakes yesterday, and Cal let him ride his back in wolf form around the yard.”

I snort at the image in my mind. “Bet he loved that.”

“He did. It’s strange. He fits in here so well, like he’s always belonged.” She pauses. “And maybe I do, too.”

I reach into my coat pocket. My fingers close around the object hidden there, small, carved, and familiar. I worked on it every day this past week when she went to bathe or sleep. As my body slowly repaired itself using the gift of her strength, I smoothed the edges, shaped the wolf from cedar, and burned the Greenbriar crest into the belly.

It takes a few grunts and some stiff maneuvering, but I manage to kneel.

She turns sharply toward me. “Rowan, what are you…?”

“I’m asking you,” I say, holding the token out between us. “To be my Mate.”

Her mouth opens, then closes again.

“You are my Mate, Rowan.”

“I know.”

“The ceremony…”

“I don’t just want to be bonded by instinct or in pain,” I forge ahead. “But fully and officially, as tradition demands. I want you to be my Luna. Rule beside me as my queen. You’re already everything to me, Alina. All I’m asking is for the chance to prove it out in the open in front of the pack.”

She stares at the carved wolf in my hand like it’s a shard of starlight I’ve stolen from the sky.

“And what about the prophecy?” she whispers.

I exhale, eyes never leaving hers. “Kseniya told me it has already come to pass.”

That makes her blink.

“She told me something I never thought I’d hear.” I smile faintly. “She said she was wrong. ”

“The wise woman is never wrong.”

“She said the ruin she saw wasn’t the ruin of me. It was the ruin of my heart and soul, the very ruination that I caused by rejecting you. Not only that, but the ruination that came later when I fooled myself into believing that a Greenbriar Alpha must lead alone. That strength can’t come from love, and that I’d be fine without you. It was a twisted, tricky prophecy, and she apologized for not taking the time to understand it more deeply.”

Alina’s lips tremble. Her eyes shine.

I take her hand and place the token in her palm, folding her fingers gently around it.

“Anyway, I don’t care what destiny says anymore. All I know is that I’m yours. And I want you to be mine, in every way.”

For a long moment, all I hear is the river, the wind, and the thud of my own heart.

And then she leans in.

She kisses me, soft and slow and sure. Her answer doesn’t come in words.

It doesn’t have to. I already know. She’s saying yes.

Chapter 29