Her scent reached me before I could look away. Night-blooming jasmine and ripe plum, and something underneath it, something that made my wolf's hackles lift without understanding why. Then my gaze caught on the bracelet around her wrist. I froze.
The Ashclaw ancestral mating cuff. Silver-and-bone, passed through generations.
I hadn't expected Fenris to give her that too.
Fenris noticed where I was looking. He lifted Vessa's hand and toyed with the cuff. "Darling, you're being unfair to me. I only made a little joke with her. How was I supposed to know she'd actually dress in ceremonial furs and show up at my den? It's been very distressing."
His war-bonded brothers chimed in one after another.
"Exactly! She's the one chasing what she can't have. The moment she heard our Fenris was the Alpha King's new favorite, she latched on like a leech."
"You saved Fenris's life on the battlefield. He swore he'd only ever love you, and he'd never take a second mate. You have nothing to worry about."
So that was his excuse for breaking his mating promise.
Of course. A childhood sweetheart could never compete with a life debt.