Word of the royal wedding reached Blackmoon the way important news always eventually did, carried by traders and travelers who had no idea the name meant anything particular to their failing Alpha.
Damon heard it from a merchant in the market square, mentioned in passing between complaints about taxes and the price of grain. The Lycan King is marrying his queen again, the merchant said. Midsummer. They say the whole of Ashenveil is decorated white and silver. They say he asked her in front of the entire kingdom, like she was the only treasure he had ever wanted to claim properly.
Damon said nothing. He paid for his goods and walked back to the pack house alone.
He had told himself, in the year since he rode home humiliated from her gate, that he had made his peace with what he lost. He
