Chapter 5: The Man Who Bought My Favorite Pastry

On the road back to Blackwood, Keller passed a bakery in the Neutral Zone. The scent of cinnamon and blackberries drifted into the street, reminding him of my favorite pastry. Only one blackberry cinnamon roll remained in the display case, and the man beside him bought it first.

The man was tall, with a quiet intensity in his eyes. Ronan Grey. The year before, Lydia had crossed the Grey Ridge border without permission and a patrol warrior stopped her, suspecting she had stolen route maps. Keller

had broken that warrior's jaw before anyone could finish questioning Lydia.

The incident had nearly caused a territorial dispute between Blackwood and Grey Ridge. Keller had eventually paid compensation from the bonding gifts meant for me, insisting that protecting Lydia mattered more than some ceremony that could be postponed.

Now the wolf whose patrolman Keller had injured stood beside him holding the last blackberry cinnamon roll in a small paper box.

Keller recognized him immediately.

"Grey."

Ronan turned.

He was not as broad as Keller, but there was something about the stillness in his posture that made other wolves instinctively leave space around him. Grey Ridge wolves were known for discipline. Ronan looked as though the reputation had been carved directly into him.

"Blake."

Keller glanced at the box in his hand. "I'll give you double for that."

Ronan looked down at it. "Why?"

"Someone I know likes them."

"So does someone I know."

Keller pulled several notes from his wallet. "Triple."

Ronan's expression did not change. "It's a pastry, not disputed territory."

The baker quickly looked away to hide a smile.

Keller's jaw tightened.

"Fine." He shoved the money back into his pocket. "Keep it."

Ronan inclined his head once and walked out.

Keller watched him through the bakery window. A Grey Ridge vehicle waited outside, its silver mountain crest visible on the door.

Something about the encounter bothered him.

Perhaps it was simply old resentment over the border incident.

Or perhaps it was the obsidian wolf's head he had picked up in our courtyard earlier that day.

Grey Ridge.

The thought remained with him for several seconds.

Then he dismissed it.

There were dozens of Grey family ceremonies every year. The gifts at my house could have belonged to anyone. I had probably borrowed a token from my sister's arrangements just to make my threat sound convincing.

That explanation suited him better.

By the time Keller reached Blackwood territory, Lydia was waiting at the gate.

She wore the scarf she had commissioned at the tailor's shop, intertwined black branches embroidered along the edges. The moment she saw Keller, she hurried toward him.

"You're finally back. Did Evelyn forgive you?"

Keller rubbed his temple.

"She's still angry."

Lydia's expression softened with sympathy. "She'll come around. She always does."

Keller looked at her.

Those were almost exactly the words he had been telling himself.

Lydia linked her arm through his. "Once we visit Father's grave, you can take the bonding gifts to Silver Fir again. Evelyn has loved you since you were children. She isn't really going anywhere."

The tightness in Keller's shoulders eased.

"Exactly."

But that night, while Lydia discussed their journey, Keller kept remembering the courtyard.

The Grey Ridge medicines.

The permits.

The obsidian wolf token.

And my face when I told him the gifts were mine.

For the first time, a small, unwelcome thought entered his mind.

What if I hadn't been lying?

At Silver Fir, I knew nothing about the bakery or Keller's doubts.

I was sitting across from Ronan Grey in my parents' receiving room when he placed a paper box between us.

"The matchmaker mentioned you liked these."

I opened it.

A blackberry cinnamon roll sat inside.

For several seconds, I could only stare.

"She told you that?"

"I asked what you liked."

The answer was so simple that it hurt.

Keller had known my favorite pastry since we were fourteen. Yet whenever we visited the Neutral Zone, Lydia preferred honey cakes, so honey cakes were what we bought.

I had spent years telling myself it didn't matter.

Apparently, I had become very talented at telling myself that.

I closed the box gently. "Thank you."

Ronan sat opposite me without moving closer.

He had come without his father, without an elder, and without the ceremonial escort Grey Ridge normally sent when negotiating a bond.

That had surprised my mother.

It relieved me.

"I wanted to speak to you before our families make any more arrangements," he said.

"About the oath?"

"About you."

My wolf stirred.

Ronan rested his forearms on his knees. "The Council matchmaker told my family your previous oath expired. She did not tell us the details. I didn't ask her for them."

"You've probably heard them anyway."

"Parts."

"And?"

"And they're not my business unless you choose to make them my business."

I looked down at my hands.

That answer should not have felt extraordinary.

It did.

For three years, everyone had treated my relationship with Keller as public property. Elders discussed my delayed marking. Women whispered about my fertility. Men joked that Keller must have discovered something wrong with my wolf.

Even my heartbreak had become communal entertainment.

Ronan was offering me privacy.

"Why did you agree to the match?" I asked.

He considered the question instead of giving me a polished answer.

"I remembered you from the winter patrol summit two years ago."

I blinked. "We spoke for perhaps five minutes."

"Seven."

A reluctant smile touched my lips. "You counted?"

"No. You argued with Councilor Fenwick for seven minutes because he wanted to close the eastern crossing during snow season."

I remembered that.

Three Silver Fir villages depended on that crossing for medicine.

"He was wrong."

"He was furious."

"He was still wrong."

The corner of Ronan's mouth moved.

"That's what I remembered."

Not my face.

Not my family.

Not the trade routes I would bring to a mating alliance.

Something I had said.

I picked a piece from the cinnamon roll and tasted it. Warm blackberry filling spread across my tongue.

Ronan waited until I swallowed before continuing.

"But remembering you isn't enough reason for you to accept me."

"The matchmaker said you wanted the bond completed within six months."

"If you want it completed."

"And if I don't?"

"Then it isn't completed."

I studied him carefully. "Even after your family delivered the gifts?"

"Those gifts demonstrate intention. They don't purchase you."

Something inside my chest loosened.

Keller had spent three years treating bonding gifts as payment he could delay because I was already his.

Ronan had delivered them before asking me for anything and still insisted they bought him nothing.

The difference was almost cruel in its clarity.

"There is something you should know," I said.

Ronan waited.

"Keller gave Lydia a consort oath."

"I heard."

My fingers tightened around the edge of the box.

"Does that bother Grey Ridge?"

"Why would another man's oath determine whether I respect you?"

I had no answer.

Ronan's gaze dropped briefly to my wrist.

The skin there was bare. No moonstone bracelet. No betrothal ribbon. No mark.

"There is another matter," he said.

"What?"

"The Council document says mutual marking within six months. I want that clause amended."

My stomach tightened.

Perhaps this was where the generosity ended.

"How?"

"Remove the deadline."

I stared at him.

"Why?"

"Because a deadline can become pressure."

He said it matter-of-factly.

"If six months pass and you're not ready, then we wait. If a year passes, we wait. If you decide before the oath ceremony that you don't want me at all, you say so and I leave."

My wolf went completely still.

For three years, Keller had asked me to wait because his needs came first.

Ronan was offering to wait because my choice mattered.

I had not realized how different those two things could feel.

"You barely know me," I whispered.

"That's precisely why I shouldn't be putting my teeth in your neck."

A laugh escaped me before I could stop it.

Ronan smiled properly for the first time.

My mother, who was undoubtedly listening from somewhere beyond the room divider despite pretending to give us privacy, made a suspicious choking sound.

I covered my mouth.

"She's listening," I whispered.

"I assumed so."

"You're not bothered?"

"Your mother threatened to break Keller Blake's legs in front of three Council messengers this morning. I wouldn't risk offending her in her own house."

I laughed again.

It felt strange.

Not forced.

Not defensive.

Just easy.

Ronan rose after another half hour.

At the doorway, he stopped.

"There's one more thing."

"Yes?"

"My family plans to hold the preliminary oath ceremony at Grey Ridge on the next full moon. The Council requires both parties to attend before the formal bonding period begins."

My heart beat faster.

"I'll be there."

"You can change your mind before then."

"Ronan."

He paused.

"I'll be there."

This time, he nodded.

"Then I'll see you at the full moon, Evelyn."

He did not touch me.

He did not try to scent me.

He did not call me his.

He simply left.

I stood at the doorway long after his vehicle disappeared beyond the pines.

My mother emerged from behind the divider.

"Seven minutes?" she asked.

I turned around. "You heard everything?"

"These walls are terribly thin."

"They're solid oak."

"Terribly thin oak."

I shook my head.

She reached for the pastry box, and I slapped her hand away.

"Mine."

Her eyebrows rose.

Then she smiled.

"Good."

Three days later, Keller left Blackwood with Lydia to visit her father's grave.

He expected to be gone for less than a week.

According to Noah, who heard it from a trader crossing Blackwood territory, Keller had told his aunt that when he returned, he would finally bring the replacement bonding gifts to me.

I listened without emotion.

"Should we send word?" Noah asked. "About Ronan?"

"No."

"Why not?"

I looked toward the oath chest sitting near the hearth.

Inside rested the obsidian wolf's head Ronan's family had sent.

"Because I've already told Keller the truth three times."

I closed the lid.

"If he chooses not to believe me, that's no longer my problem."

The following morning, a Lunar Council messenger arrived carrying a sealed silver envelope.

My father opened it at breakfast.

His eyebrows climbed as he read.

"What is it?" my mother asked.

He handed the letter to me.

The Council had formally recorded the expiration of my betrothal to Keller Blake.

Thirty-six full moons.

Failure to deliver the agreed bonding gifts.

No mutual marking.

No extension registered by both parties.

The final line was written in the Council's dry legal language.

Evelyn Hall was recognized as an unmated wolf with unrestricted right to enter a new oath.

I read it twice.

There was no heartbreak this time.

Only relief.

My father reached across the table and squeezed my hand.

"You're free."

I folded the letter carefully.

"I already was."

But official recognition mattered.

Especially because a copy of the same ruling was being delivered to Blackwood territory.

Keller was away.

His father received it instead.

And while Keller traveled beside the woman for whom he had sacrificed our bonding gifts three years in a row, Blackwood's elders finally learned what he had refused to understand.

The oath was not waiting for him.

It had expired.

And on the next full moon, I would stand beside Ronan Grey before the Lunar Council and decide whether I wanted to make a new one.