Not just any male.Themale. The one she’d seen naked only two hours ago.
Kai’s heart leapt directly into her throat.
He, however, showed no sign of agitation or stress.
Unlike Shadi, who sat forward on her throne and clenched the stone arms. Her gaze shaped a triangular pattern through the air that started with Fala, then to the male whose name Kai still didn’t know, and finally Shadi’s attention landed on Kai just as?—
“Kai Silver Wolf. Come forward and have your union blessed.”
A sharp jab landed between Kai’s shoulders. Sitsi hissed at her from behind. “Go, sister, before Mother burns you alive.”
Kai couldn’t move. She couldn’tbreathe. She’d expected this would happen, but with the hour drawing to a close, the hope of escape had begun shaping into a reality. She’d made entire plans for how she would make things up to Fala tonight, and none of them had included a husband.
A large hand broke through her blurred vision in an offer to help her up. She followed the long length of his arm up to a firm, round shoulder. The male’s naked, broad chest tapered to a narrow waist, and he wore supple leather pants. Unlike before, his dark brown hair hung long and straight to mid-back.
Kai met his warm brown eyes, and he offered her a small smile.
She couldn’t return it. The Eternal One chose a male for her who was neither Silver Wolf nor Quiet Rock. He was Rising Moon.
The entire hall was buzzing. This never happened.
The male glanced around, then came to a knee before her. “Are you all right?” His rich, deep voice was so low that only those nearest Kai would have heard him.
“I’m fine,” Kai clipped.
Shadi strode toward the Eternal One and grabbed her by the wrist. Whatever she was saying, the meaning was all over her face. Shewasn’thappy. In fact, she was furious.
And to think this could have all been avoided. Shadi could have helped Kai years ago when Kai first asked to be left out of this ceremony. Now, look where they were.
Kai stood, ignoring the male’s offer up, and shouldered past him. Falawaited at the bottom, gaze flicking between Kai and the male keeping pace behind her.
Fala reached for her hands and squeezed them so hard that her knuckles crushed together. “Kai, please don’t do this.”
“Do what? You’re hurting me, Fala.” She pulled her hands free and shook the blood back into them.
“Do not go up there and refuse him in front of everyone.”
Kai leaned away from the accusation and backed right into a hard chest. Startled, she stepped out of their closing ranks. Everyone in the hall stared and whispered, waiting for the three of them to take their place on the dais. An hour ago, she fully intended to stride right up to the Eternal One and voice her refusal.
Loudly.
Then Fala turned her back and refused to sit with her. Refused totalkto her.
Kai couldn’t lose her. Not over this.
“We should go up there,” Kai said, focusing on the male’s boots. The leather toes were scuffed, much like many from Rising Moon, as their clan managed the mountain’s infrastructure and mining.
Fala and the male exchanged a look, and then he offered Fala his right elbow. She took it, and Kai’s heart dipped toward the stone floor. Was this what her life would be now? Watching them fit while she frayed? Both beautiful, she with soft curves and he with sharp angles.
And standing opposite them…her. Exacting. Malignant. So desperate to hold onto her wife that she would cut out an entire part of herself.
Heat burned the backs of Kai’s eyes as the male offered her his remaining elbow. But her hands hung leaden at her sides. She couldn’t. It felt wrong. It wasall wrong.
Fala’s eyes widened a fraction. “Kai.”
Kai shook the drowning feeling off and straightened. “I’m right behind you.”
On the dais, Shadi stood beside two other matriarchs, one representing Quiet Rock and the other Rising Moon. Shadi and Panola Quiet Rock had come together once before to officiate the unheard-of binding between their two clans when Kai and Fala married. Now, Inola Rising Moon was expected to bind this male to them without warning, and her frown looked deeper than Kai’s felt.
