When I didn't move, she shoved me. Hard.
Wolves who've worked the land have strong hands. And hers held nothing back.
I couldn't brace against the force. My feet skidded toward the doorway, one stumbling step after another across the stone floor.
Five years of mating bond. And this was how it ended—on Midwinter Turning Night.
My eyes found Ronan over his mother's shoulder. His scent had gone cold, distant, like a stranger's.
"Ronan. Tell me. When did you fall for her?"
Raven answered instead, her voice dripping with gentle venom. "I'll admit, I gave him a hard time back then. But do you know why?"
I held my breath, my wolf pressing against my ribs, desperate to break free.
"Because he sent me ninety-nine scent-marked courtship tokens. Kept sending them, one after another, each one drenched in his longing. I just wasn't ready to accept a claim yet."
The past I thought I knew crumbled to ash.
My body began to shake. For ten, maybe fifteen heartbeats, my mind went completely blank. My wolf howled somewhere deep inside me, wounded and raw.
So that was it. He'd been sending courtship tokens to Raven.