Her broken bloodline and rogue-touched family had never met the Ironclaw Pack's standards for a Beta's mate. The season they came of age, under pressure from the pack elders, Kael had been forced to sever their bond-courtship.
But after he mated with me, they had never truly let go.
Raven loved documenting her life. She was a moderately popular howl-caller on the pack-net.
On her mark-thread, I discovered a different Kael.
He smiled. He posed for memory-captures. He prepared meals with his own hands.
Nothing like the Kael I knew—the one who did nothing but work himself to exhaustion for pack standing.
It turned out that during our bonding journey, they had already reconnected.
For all ten nights of our mating celebration travels, she had stayed in the den chamber next to ours.
That was her very first pack-net mark.
In the captured image, Kael wore the bonding band I had selected for him myself—silver etched with our intertwined house symbols.
He was holding Raven on the moonlit shore, kissing her.
And in that moment, it finally made sense.
The scarred marking on his left ring finger—the one he had been so desperate to burn away with silver salve.
It was the initial runes of her name.