My lover's brother is my fated mate

"We don't have long"Adrian said,his hands found my waist."They're going to start calling names any minute."

"I know" I tried to keep it level. My back was pressed against the rough cedar of the tool shed, and I could feel the pack drums through the soles of my shoes"I just want to see you,before it starts."

He let out a sharp ragged breath "Elena." He said my name like it pissed him off that I needed this, and worse that he couldn't walk away"Look at me."

I did.

"Nothing changes," his voice dropped low. "You hear me? I don't give a damn what the Moon pulls tonight. If she gives your hand to someone else, I'm walking right up that place and telling the whole pack you're mine. If she gives you to me, great, If she gives you to anyone else, I'm making a scene. A big one."

"You won't." I said in a hurry. "You always say that. You don't know what it looks like from the outside, watching someone get handed off like livestock"

"Neither do you."

"I know that, Adrian, I just" I stopped. "I'm terrified, Is that okay? Can I just be with you for two seconds before going in there?"

He didn't argue. He brought me forward until our foreheads knocked together, I could hear him breathing .

"Okay," he muttered against my skin. " Elena, I just want you to know nothing can come in between us. I'm shaking inside my boots too,I just don't know how to say it"

"Then don't say anything,just stay here."

He laughed and kissed me before I could argue back, It wasn't polite,a rough one like it was our last.. Our teeth clipped together, clumsy and hard, and he made a rough sound in the back of his throat, his hand fisting into the fabric at the small of my back. I grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled him down, and for three seconds the drums didn't exist, just the taste of him .

We broke apart gasping.

"After," he muttered against my temple, his thumb digging into my hip bone. "We stop hiding after tonight,promise me."

"After," I whispered back.

Then the woods went dead silent. Not quiet,dead.

Do not let them see your eyes beneath the moon.

My whole body went stiff. My nails dug straight through his shirt into his shoulder blades.

"Elena?" He held me instantly, he quickly looked at me. "Hey What is it,you look like you've seen a ghost."

"Someone talked." My voice was barely air. "Right there in the brush, It said, it told me not to let them see my eyes."

He spun around, shoving me behind him, scanning the tree line with narrowed eyes. "I didn't hear a damn thing." His tone was steady, but I felt the tremor in his fingers. "Probably some idiot initiates trying to pull a prank before the circle forms,you know how they get."

"That wasn't an initiate."

He looked back at me, hesitating for a second like he wanted to brush it off, then pressed a quick kiss to the corner of my mouth.

"Then we keep our heads down. We get through the damn ritual, we stick to our plan, and I'm not letting some voice in the dark ruin it. Okay?"

I nodded, even though I didn't feel satisfied

We split up the way we always did,him first, me waiting thirty seconds behind a stack of racks so no one saw us walking out of the same corner of the yard.

By the time I slipped into the main clearing, the pitch torches were roaring and the drum rhythm had shifted into that heavy, dragging that makes your teeth ache. I didn't bother looking at the elders on the dais. I scanned the crowd until I found Adrian standing with his brother near the front, Lucian standing a shoulder taller than him in his formal black wool coat, entirely expressionless.

Then the Elder called out my surname, loud and flat over the racket, and my chest went hollow.

The crowd behind me surged, shoving me out from the shadows and into the open sky. The instant the moonlight caught my skin, nausea hit me raw and fast a heavy, pulling weight low in my gut that made my knees go weak. I hauled a fistful of my skirt up so hard,digging my nails into the fabric just to feel something sharp and ordinary.

I looked up at the dais and caught Lucian's eye.

He wasn't smiling. But his expression cracked, just for a second, like he was looking at someone he hadn't expected to see. The pale gray of his irises seemed to bleed out into the dark.

And then it hit,not a spark, but a shove right in the chest, pulling me forward before my brain could argue.

I sucked in a sharp breath, loud enough that the girl standing beside me looked at me with a side eye .

The worst part was that it didn't feel wrong. It felt like walking into a warm room after freezing for hours.

Past Lucian's shoulder, my eyes found Adrian.

He wasn't looking at the moon. He was staring straight at me, his face completely drained of color,the look of a man who already knew what the verdict was before the Alpha even opened his mouth.