Devdan shook his head. “You’re mistaken.”
All three of them went very still.
“You deny us then?” the woman asked.
They waited, but concern and doubt showed on all their faces.
“I have nothing to offer you,” Devdan finally said and turned to leave. Rel placed her hand on his arm. The glance he gave her was severe as she looked between the Lunae before her and him expectantly.
The woman cleared her throat. “My name is Vy. I was born outside of a mating pair to two exiled Lunae. I have spent my entire life alone, a vow to never join any pack after the atrocities I heard my parents speak of. But when your heart called, I had no choice but to answer. I’ve sailed and traveled for weeks to get to you.”
Devdan turned back around stiffly.
“My name is Yaris, and this is my mate Neem. They’re a witch. We were kicked out of my pack merely because they were not Lunae. Like I had any choice in the matter,” he added, but not bitterly.
“You’re a witch?” Rel asked with unconcealed excitement. “Coven?”
“Frost and Shadow,” they said, studying her beneath their lashes.
It was a coven outside of Witch Country. She smiled. “I’m also a witch. Well, half one anyway.”
Neem smirked knowingly and elbowed Yaris. “Itoldyou.” For his part, Yaris only offered his mate a faint smile, but it disappeared just as quickly as he looked back to Devdan.
“I never wanted to be a pack leader,” Devdan said. “I just want to live my life out with my mate.”
“And we don’t want to disrupt that,” Vy said, “but your heart chose us whether you wanted it to or not, and ours chose you.” Her intense amber gaze landed on Rel. “And you.” Vy knelt on one knee, and Yaris and Neem did the same. All three pulled their collars down, exposing their necks.
Submission.
Devdan looked at her, searching for some answer she couldn’t give him. She knew this was some long-carried hurt, but when she looked at the two Lunae and the frost witch before her, she felt an inkling of something. Something she had never known, an idea she hadn’t understood fully—coven. The magic of familial bonds that ran far deeper than blood.
And for Devdan, she felt it would be similar. Coven, pack—it made no difference.
The cracking of twigs and rustling underbrush pulled their focus to the tree line, only for another Lunae to emerge. Long dark hair with gray and white interspersed, kind eyes, a smile full of pride.
“Tabion?” Devdan asked, emotion finally entering his voice.
Trailing behind him was Friend. And behind the horse were three more Lunae with rucksacks and hopeful looks.
“They’ve all come for you,” Rel said, squeezing her mate’s hand.
“We’ve come for you too,” Tabion said to her. “We belong to you both. And you belong to us.”
Her mate took a shaky breath.
Then, together, they stepped forward to accept them.
