Knotting His Rejected Breeder

They had dropped the stone in the middle of the cemetery. Now, they waited to see if anyone would take the bait.

A few yards away, Destiny sat on a fallen log, her knees pulled tight against her chest. Her funeral coat was dark with moisture at the hem, and her hair clung in damp strands to her cheeks.

Dane’s senses were flared. He caught the faintest sounds in the air, but his instincts didn’t alert him to any immediate danger.

So he walked over, his heavy boots sinking silently into the pine needles, and sat down on the wet log beside her.

Destiny rested her head against his arm, letting out a long, shuddering breath.

"I hate this," she murmured, her voice barely louder than the patter of rain on the leaves above them. "I hate hiding in the trees like a coward while your pack members are buried and I’m to blame."

"You’re not a coward," Dane said, his voice a low, steady rumble that vibrated through her shoulder. He reached down, wrapping his large, warm hand over her cold fingers where they rested in her lap. "And you’re not hiding. You’re hunting. There’s a difference."

Destiny turned her head slightly, looking up at him. Her eyes were red-rimmed, dark with a mix of grief and bone-deep exhaustion.

"Erin’s mother was so angry, Dane. She looked at me with so much hatred. I fear she will be vengeful."

"Erin’s mother is half-crazed with grief, Destiny. She needed someone to throw all that anger at, and you just so happened to be there." Dane’s grip on her hand tightened just enough to ground her. "You didn’t put Erin in that box. The people after you did. Don’t carry that guilt just because his mother needed a place to throw it."

Destiny stared down at their laced fingers.

"It’s hard not to feel it when everyone who gets close to me ends up bleeding."

"I’m right here," Dane said softly. "And I’m not bleeding."

A faint, bitter smile touched the corner of her lips, though it didn’t reach her eyes.

"Not today, anyway."

They fell quiet for a moment.

Down in the valley, the groundskeeper slammed the doors of the wooden shed, the metallic bang echoing up the ridge. Dane’s ears twitched at the sound, his eyes flicking instinctively toward the noise before settling back on his wife.

It still felt surreal, the word wife. They had been bound, mated, and married in the middle of a collapsing war, dragged through blood and pack politics before they even had a second to figure out what they were to each other.

"You’ve been different since you came back from the north," Destiny said quietly, tracing the calloused knuckles of his hand with her thumb. "Distanced. Like you’re still standing in two places at once."

Dane looked out over the fog-draped canopy.

"I was away from you for three weeks, Destiny. In our world, three weeks away from your mate feels like three years. I spent every night up there wondering if I’d come back to find Vance had burned the estate to the ground with you inside it."

"I can take care of myself."

"I know you can," he said, looking back at her, his dark eyes softening in a way he only ever allowed her to see. "That doesn’t stop me from tearing my own chest open every time I’m not there to stand between you and a threat. It’s the bond, Destiny. It’s... you."

Destiny looked at him, really looked at him, processing the raw honesty in his tone. The stiffness in her shoulders finally melted, and she leaned into him fully, resting her cheek against his chest.

Dane wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her flush against his side and shielding her from the cold wind cutting through the ridge. He could feel the dampness of her coat beneath his palm and the slight tremor that still moved through her body whenever the memory of the funeral surfaced.

For once, he didn’t try to fix anything.

He simply held her.

"I missed you," she admitted, her voice muffled against his coat. "Even when I was angry at you for leaving, I missed you so much it felt like an ache in my ribs."

"I’m not leaving again," Dane said into her damp hair. "Not without you. Never again."

She stayed quiet against him for a few long seconds, listening to the steady, heavy beat of his heart. It was the only thing in her world right now that felt solid.

"What about Aurora?" she asked softly, the name hanging heavy in the cool air between them. "When we were down by the carriages, I kept thinking about what she said before the service. How did you actually get Vance to pull his men back from the eastern border? He doesn’t just retreat out of goodwill."

Dane’s jaw tightened slightly, his wolf instincts spiking for a fraction of a second at the mention of Vance’s name.

"Aurora knows how to leverage Vance’s ego. She made him believe that pushing into our territory right now would force a full alliance between my father’s elders and your family’s council. Vance is arrogant, but he’s not stupid. He won’t fight two united bloodlines on open ground."

Destiny lifted her head, searching his face.

"Do you really think it’s over? Do you think he’s actually backing off?"

"No," Dane said honestly. "Vance is waiting. He knows we’re fractured. He knows the pack is dividing itself over our marriage."

Destiny let out a hollow laugh, pulling her coat tighter around herself.

"God, our parents. Do you think they’ll ever actually accept this? Your father looks at me like I’m a disease that’s going to weaken his bloodline, and my mother acts like marrying a wolf is the ultimate disgrace to our name."

"Let them think whatever they want," Dane said, his voice dropping into a fierce, low rumble. "My father’s time is passing. So is your mother’s. They’re clinging to old hatreds because they don’t know how to survive without them. But you and I... we don’t have the luxury of living in the past."

"It’s going to be a war, Dane. Inside the house and outside of it."

"Then we fight it together," Dane said, reaching up to cup her jaw. His thumb brushed over her cheekbone, warming her cold skin. "Look at me, Destiny."

She met his eyes, intense, dark, and utterly unwavering.

"I didn’t mate with you because of the stone, or because of the council, or because our families needed a peace treaty," he said, his voice thick with an emotion he rarely let out into the open. "I chose you. Through all the blood, through Erin’s death, through every damn thing pulling us apart, I chose you. Do you regret it?"

Destiny’s breath hitched.

She looked into the face of the man who had dragged her out of the fire more times than she could count, the man who was currently holding her like she was the only fragile thing left in a brutal world.

"No," she whispered, wrapping her fingers around his wrist. "I don’t regret it. I just... I want us to have a chance, Dane. A real chance. Without a target painted on our backs."

"We will," he murmured, leaning down until his forehead rested against hers. "We’re going to kill Vance, we’re going to settle the pack, and then I’m going to take you somewhere where the rain doesn’t smell like blood."

A small, real smile finally touched her lips.

"That sounds like a fantasy."

"It’s a promise."

Dane leaned in slowly.

For a moment, neither of them moved. His forehead remained against hers, and Destiny could feel the warmth of his breath against her lips. The noise of the forest seemed to fade into the background, leaving only the soft rain falling through the trees and the quiet rhythm of their breathing.

Then his lips touched hers.

The kiss began gently, almost cautiously. There was no urgency in it, no attempt to turn it into something more than what they needed in that moment. Dane simply held her face in his hand and kissed her as though he wanted to remind both of them that they were still here.

Destiny’s fingers curled into the collar of his coat.

She kissed him back, her eyes closing as she leaned closer. The warmth of his mouth against hers chased away some of the cold that had settled into her bones, and for those few seconds, the cemetery, the funeral, Vance, their families, and the blood that seemed to follow them everywhere ceased to matter.

Dane’s hand slipped from her jaw to the back of her neck, holding her gently as the kiss deepened. Destiny moved closer until there was barely any space between them. Her fingers tightened around his coat, not because she wanted more, but because she didn’t want the moment to end.

It had been weeks since they had been alone like this.

Weeks of distance, arguments, danger, and uncertainty had left too much unsaid between them. The kiss seemed to carry all of it. The relief of seeing each other again. The fear of losing each other. The anger they hadn’t completely worked through. And beneath all of it, the simple need to know that the other person was still there.

When they finally broke apart, Destiny kept her forehead against his.

Neither of them spoke.

Dane brushed his thumb slowly across her cheek, his gaze lingering on her face.

Then, as if drawn back to her by the bond itself, he kissed her again.

This time, Destiny met him without hesitation.

She tilted her face toward his, her fingers sliding higher into the damp hair at the back of his neck. Dane pulled her closer, his arm firm around her waist as the rain continued to fall around them.

For a few precious seconds, there was no pack and no war.

There was only them.

Then Dane suddenly broke the kiss.

His head snapped to the left.

Every muscle in his body went rigid in an instant. The warmth in his eyes vanished, replaced by the terrifying, laser-focused intensity of an Alpha predator on high alert.

Destiny stiffened against him, her own senses straining to catch what he had felt.

"Dane?"

"Shh," he breathed, his hand coming down to press against her back, flattening her against the log.

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