It was no surprise to look up into the face of Eric Black.

“What the hell is this?” Jaden asked. He could see wolves gathering all around him, running on four legs and then switching to two as they came together to see why the cry had been raised. There was curious murmuring that ran through the crowd, an electric sound. They all knew something big was coming, but no one knew what.

Least of all Jaden.

“Eric,” he growled when the man didn’t answer him. This time, the large wolf looked at him, a threatening gleam in his eye.

Dimly, he heard a voice calling his name.

“Jaden. Jaden? Jaden!”

The click of boot heels resonated on the concrete, and there was Lyra running toward him. Her eyes were wide, and Jaden realized he’d never really seen her look frightened before. The fact that her fear was on his behalf didn’t give him much confidence in what was unfolding.

He caught the way Eric looked at her, and alarms sounded in his head.

“Lyra, don’t—”

“Grab her,” Eric said. Seeing a couple of Eric’s thugs put their hands on her was worse, somehow, than being caught himself. Lyra was more stoic about the current situation than he had been, likely because she knew these people, but her fury was evident. She held herself as regally as a queen.

“Let go of me. I demand to know the meaning of this.”

“You’re going to,” Eric said flatly. “Where the hell is Dorien. On his way? Good. He’ll hear me.” His voice rose again.

“Wolves of the Thorn,” he cried. “We gather tonight to decide the fate of one of our daughters!”

Lyra knew what was happening a split second before Jaden did. He saw the realization dawn, all the color drain from her face. This sudden turn of events could mean only one thing, he realized. And the knowledge was accompanied by a sinking feeling deep in the pit of his stomach.

Eric knew. Somehow, he knew that he and Lyra had been together. And he was going to cast her out, just as Simon had warned him. How he’d found proof, Jaden didn’t know. But he must have, somehow. His shoulders sagged.

These bloody wolves were all far too interested in one another’s business.

Dorien shouted as he approached, then burst through the front of the large circle that had gathered in the square, surrounding them.

“What is the meaning of this? Eric, damn it, this time you’ve gone too far! Get your hands off my daughter, now!”

“It’s Lyra who’s finally gone too far. She’s bonded with this filthy bloodsucker, and she still thinks she should lead the pack!”

The crowd went into an uproar, but all Jaden could see was Lyra. That single word spoke volumes, slammed into him with all it might mean. Her beautiful face, usually so full of light, told the truth. Bonded, he thought. How could he not have known? Suddenly everything, her odd behavior after their lovemaking, her cautious reengagement with him, made sense. But why hadn’t she just told him?

He supposed he was living the answer to the second question right now. Still, something so important… he wished she had trusted him with it. Bonded. But what exactly did that mean, when he’d seen no marks on his own body… how did she know?

More important, how did she feel?

Her eyes met his for a single instant, and he felt her pain slice through him like the edge of a knife. And he knew—she might feel for him, but this, all of this, was not what she had wanted. How could it be? Yet some part of him had hoped that after all this time, he might actually be someone’s first choice.

A fool’s wish.

At first, Dorien was incredulous. He barely glanced at Lyra and Jaden, instead striding up to growl, red faced, at his nephew. His voice was quieter, but Jaden, and he imagined most of the other wolves here, could hear him perfectly.

“You’d better have some damned good proof to back up what you’re accusing her of, boy. This is my daughter.”

“I know,” Eric said flatly. “And I do, Uncle. Have a look.” His voice raised. “Everyone look at what your would-be Alpha has been doing!”

Jaden was disgusted. “Why don’t you just brand her with a scarlet A, you pig? You say you don’t want to be seen as savages? What the hell is this?”

Eric rounded on him as he stepped to Lyra. “Shut up,” he snapped. “You’ve got no right to speak here, just like you had no right to touch her. You disrespect my pack, our traditions, our laws, everything with what you’ve done. You think I’m happy to lose my cousin to this? It’s a blight on our line!”

“Actually,” Jaden growled, “I think you must be dancing with joy on the inside.”

“Think what you will,” Eric sneered. “I have no use for vampires. Our kinds don’t mix. And now this.”

He reached for Lyra. She didn’t struggle but merely stood there, a mixture of defiance and resignation, while Eric extended his claws and tore through the sleeve of her shirt. Gasps rose from the crowd as the fabric fell away and revealed a delicate band, lighter than ink but too dark to be imagined, encircling her arm.

The mark was like nothing Jaden had seen before, and he strained forward, trying to get a better look at the band. But he was quickly jerked back, and he whipped his head around to glare at his captors.

“Watch it,” he growled.

Dorien’s voice, now strained, drew his attention back to the scene unfolding before him. The Alpha stood in front of his daughter, disappointment etched so deeply into his face that Jaden imagined some of the lines would stay permanently. And Lyra, who he had once thought would spit in the face of anyone who crossed her, could barely meet his eyes.

She was losing everything. Because of him. Something deep within his chest constricted and began to ache.

“Don’t punish her,” Jaden said. “Blame me. She didn’t know. Neither of us knew.”

A little of the fire flared in her eyes as she lifted her head to look first at him, then at Dorien.

“I take the blame for my actions. What’s done is done. I have nothing to say in my defense. Just…” She trailed off, her voice softening. “Don’t hurt him. Do what you like with me, but don’t hurt him. His intentions were… his heart was… in the right place. He didn’t understand. I did. Blame me.”

Eric crossed his arms over his chest. To Jaden he looked like some tribal chieftain, and he knew he had not truly appreciated what an ancient and closed society the wolf pack could be until now. This all had the feel of a ritual that had been played out many times before, whenever a wolf ran afoul of the pack. A casting out.

And from the heartbroken look on Dorien’s face, Jaden knew the man would do nothing to stop it. Whether he couldn’t, or just wouldn’t, was irrelevant.

“Lyra,” Dorien said quietly. “I knew there was something, but you were so close. You know there’s nothing I can do. Why?”

She tipped her head up to look into Dorien’s face, and Jaden saw a single tear slide down her cheek. Jaden held his breath, barely realizing that he was, waiting to hear what she would say. But he knew that what he hoped, what he needed, to hear was something that might never fall from her lips. And certainly not here, in full sight of her pack.

Even as they cast her out.

“Does it matter?” she asked quietly. “It comes to the same thing. I’m sorry, Dad. We didn’t mean for it to go so far.”

Dorien shook his head as cries began to rise from the pack, demands for justice to be meted out on both Jaden and Lyra. Not all the wolves, though, Jaden saw, looking around. Not even most. He saw everything from sympathy to sorrow to shock reflected back at him in the glowing eyes of the pack. Lyra was well loved. It shouldn’t have surprised him. But none of them would go against the laws they had always lived by, the laws that had protected them from destruction more than once. He was just an interloper, a thief.

A vampire.

He caught sight of Gerry, the leader of the pack guard who had been kind to him fairly quickly. The man shook his head sadly as their eyes met, and then turned away. Suddenly, Jaden realized Simon was nowhere to be seen. He had known, Jaden thought. He’d warned him. But it had already been too late.

All eyes were on Dorien as he approached Jaden. He didn’t struggle, knowing it was better to face whatever the Alpha was going to dish out without fear. Inside, however, nerves jangled. He had no idea what to expect.

“I trusted you,” Dorien said. Jaden could hear the storm beneath the calm surface of the Alpha’s voice. “You were supposed to help save her. And now I’ve lost her forever.”

“I fell in love with her,” Jaden said. He felt Lyra’s shocked gaze on his face, but he couldn’t look away from Dorien. If he had to be subjected to this, if she did, he would say his piece.

He saw surprise, anger. “Love doesn’t matter.”

“The hell it doesn’t,” Jaden said, his voice carrying over the crowd. “She’s waited her entire life to be seen for who she is, instead of just a token of power. She was brave enough to reach for what she wanted, and open minded enough to see me as a man instead of just a bloodsucker. She is exactly the sort of woman your pack should be holding up as an example. This isn’t the damned Dark Ages anymore, Dorien. Those battles are over. The rest of the world has moved on, and yet here we are. You’re going to give up your daughter, make her a pariah, for accidentally bonding with a man who loves her. Who would support her, and this pack. I would accept you, even though you’re not my kind. You’re really going to disown your only child because you refuse to accept me?”

Eric curled his lip in disgust. “We have laws for a reason, vampire. We had chaos once, and it almost destroyed us. The Thorn is moving forward. Letting in the vampires jeopardizes all of that.”

“Then why are you talking to the Ptolemy?” Jaden asked, and saw Eric’s face darken with fury.

“The Ptolemy? This is the dynasty that’s been hunting you here? Why would I have anything to do with them? One vampire is the same as another. I wish they’d gotten you. It would have saved us all of this.”