But being Prime? That has always been my mother’s title. As the heir, I knew I would step into that role. Something else I had run from after my mother was killed. Not anymore. There was no more running.
I glanced at my kin, at Candra and Winter, and saw their pride mirrored back without apology. Then I focused on Freya and gave her my answer. “I will stand as Prime Matron.”
Freya turned, gaze burning into Talon. “Talon Steele, do you stand as Alpha of all your brotherhood, the shield that guards the wild soul of our kind?”
He didn’t blink. “I do.”
She moved to face us both, the command of the situation absolute. “Tonight, you bind yourselves as one. Will you open your will and soul to each other—the Valkyrie to anchor the Shifter’s beast, and the Shifter to shield the Valkyrie’s warrior?”
Together, Talon and I said, “We will.”
Freya nodded once, the approval in her eyes ferocious.
“Then speak the rite. Let the old law hold.” She threw magic into the air. It crackled loudly, filling the arches overhead with blue fire.
She guided us through the words, line by line.
“By blood, by breath, by ancient right, the bond awakens this night.”
We echoed her. “By blood, by breath, by ancient right, the bond awakens this night.”
The circle around us erupted, Valkyries and shifters responding in perfect unity.
“The soulbond is restored. Realms secure. Seven bonds shall rise! More will follow in their own time as the Norns see fit.”
The magic didn’t wait. Something hot and blinding lashed out from my chest—a thread of pure gold, lighting straight to Talon’s heart. For a second, I felt everything: his pride, his rage, the hungers he’d hidden from every soul except me. The thread pulsed, then detonated in a wave that washed over the courtyard.
I saw it hit our inner circle first before touching everyone in our collective clans. The wave swept every pair, every doubt, every bitter memory into a single flash of possibility. I’d never seen power move like this. The old rituals had been cold, transactional. This felt alive. Relentless.
Freya seemed to drink in the sight. Her body glowed as if she’d been waiting a thousand years for this exact moment.
“Let the vows seal,” she commanded, voice low. “Let their souls weave as one, their strength double against all shadow, their love to endure beyond death.”
I reached for Talon and didn’t just hold his hand but locked my fingers with his and drew him close. The gold light pierced straight to my core, burning away every hesitation I’d ever allowed to slow me down.
I leaned into Talon close enough for only him to hear. “I’m glad you made me take the slow road,” I whispered, voice gone hoarse from the charge of it.
He grinned with that crooked wolf smile and bent his forehead to mine. “Me too.”
Then he kissed me. The crowd cheered, and someone turned on music. Breaking the kiss, Talon scooped me up in his arms and walked to his house. Which was our house now. For the first time since my mother was murdered, I felt like I was home.
Whatever Balder threw at us, we would handle. Together as the new Valen-Steer Clan.
