: FESTIVA

t was a time to celebrate, to speak of dreams aloud, and to make promises. Smiles, glittering eyes, and the laughter of children playing danced in the lights of torches and echoed for miles through the cool evening air. E

an ever, more powerful than ever. He took every step majestically, and the villagers watched him with respect and admiration and stood in awe. Her cheeks heated with the thought of how lo

reaching over the square..." "Tonight is a night to cele

d, pulling her close, and telling everyone that she was his chosen mate. During all the trials, she had been by his side; she had shown him so much loy

ire's. She thought she saw a soft look in his expression, and her heart leaped

of all of you and have a responsibility to protect you all," he carried o

ush the thought away as a nervous trick. Her eyes hadn't left Jona as

teady, "I cannot put the safety of any

ike a storm cloud in her mind. The flicker of confusion passed o

rned to face her directly. He said, 'Claire,' and she shivered, not in the way she'd hoped when she h

hough it had stopped. The words stabbed like hooks into her, more profound t

with him. She struggled to gain a sense of it. She now could see others, some wit

onfire: "Jona, please." Her legs were lead, and her whole body was sinking i

She couldn't tell anymore. His voice was low and almost cold, he said. "I have to. As Alpha, I am n

to snap him out of it with one blow. She had trusted he would be there, trusted he could

to stop staring at him, though everything in her wanted to

he had fallen in love with. But where it had been, it was gone, the stony mask he wor

only made it worse. Claire's eyes watered. She wiped her cheeks and realized that they were wet with tears, which she did

the whispers she summoned. Her back was against the eyes of the village, judging her, laying blame on her.

director of nursing stepped her way down the winding path leading out of the village. Silence was almost comfortabl

wound its way through the forest. On looking into the water, she recognized almost nothing but the girl w

in her throat, she whispered, "What d

he time, she had backed him, stood by his side, and believed in him. She had given everything she could so she w

cheeks stir the trees around the surrounding trees. The breeze was gentle.

nchor Claire had always counted on-lost-she had never been entirely so lost before. The reject

d up. She thought their dreams had always been so far away, so unreachable, and