Layla squeezed her hands tighter. “Just because we do, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have a choice. Arthur is a good male. You’ll be safe here, you and your daughter. You might even grow to be happy. But it is your choice, Dani.”
Dani turned, looking into the fire.
If only Layla’s words were true. If she ran, she would lose her coven. Lose safety for her daughter. Potentially damn their world to war. And if she stayed, she’d be giving up her freedom. Her right to practice her craft in peace. She would be breaking every promise she’d made to herself in the last ten years.
No matter what she chose, she would be damned.
She thought of Aurelia. What would be best for her.
In the end, the decision was simple.
Chapter 6 - Arthur
By the time the last light had bled out of the sky, they’d led Arthur into the trees.
The priest walked ahead, lantern swinging, wolves watching his journey from a distance, their eyes catching what little moonlight there was. Every step took Arthur further from the compound, further from humanity, and deeper into the stillness of old Nordan land.
The clearing opened suddenly. A scooped-out basin of snow and stone. Candles ringed the rock at its center, flames stubborn against the wind. Lunarion’s sigil, carved long before any living record, glimmered under a dusting of frost.
Dani was already there.
He stopped breathing.
Someone had braided her hair back, leaving the rest to tumble down her back in the unruly curls he remembered far too well. The gown she wore was plain Nordan white, with long sleeves, a laced bodice, and skirts brushing the snow. It should have looked soft, pure, and glowing under Lunarion’s moon.
It didn’t.
It made her look like a woman walking toward execution.
The priest bowed to her before turning to Arthur.
“Alpha,” he murmured, “we’re ready for you.”
Arthur stepped onto the stone. Cold crept instantly up his legs. The air thinned. The hair at the base of his neck lifted.
He stopped two paces from her.
Too close. Not nearly close enough.
“Arthur Wells,” the priest said, voice carrying cleanly through the dark, “do you come here of your own will, to bind your life to this female, in the sight of Lunarion?”
Dani’s face was icy, her brow creasing slightly at the word.Female. She wasn’t a shifter anymore, after all.
She was a witch.
He swallowed thickly, meeting her gaze. “Aye. I do.”
His wolf growled approval beneath his skin.
The priest turned. “Daniella Taylor of Salem. Do you come here of your own will, to bind your life to this alpha?”
The silence stretched long enough to hurt.
Then she lifted her chin. “Yes. I do.”
Arthur’s heart lodged somewhere behind his ribs.
“Join hands,” the priest said.
