(Amara's POV)

I needed distance.

That was the only coherent thought in my head.

I slid off the edge of the bed, muttered something about needing water, and forced my legs to carry me toward the window. They barely cooperated. My knees felt like they'd been replaced with something soft and unreliable, and every step felt like a small negotiation with gravity.

There was a small table near the window. A pitcher of water sat on it. I grabbed the nearest glass with both hands - both, because one wasn't steady enough - and poured.

I drank the whole thing in one long pull.

It didn't help.

My skin still felt like it was running a fever. I could still feel his eyes on my back even though I'd turned away from him. The cedar and mint scent of him had followed me across the room and settled around me like it belonged there.

I set the glass down harder than I meant to.

Think, I told myself. Think clearly. You're a healer. You solve problems. This is a problem. Solve it.

I started pacing.

The floorboards were cool under my bare feet. I focused on that - the texture, the temperature - and tried to organize my thoughts into something useful.

It didn't work.

Because the more I thought, the worse it got.

Last week, in the medical center, I'd been restocking supplies when Nurse Sarah had come in with her usual armload of gossip. She hadn't even bothered lowering her voice.

The Western Pack's Alpha was planning to mate his daughter to Alexis. Negotiations had been running for months. Several smaller packs in the Eastern Territory were also maneuvering for alliance through marriage. And Northern Pack - my home pack - was apparently trying to quietly position itself in his favor too.

I had barely registered any of it at the time.

Now every word came back to me with crushing clarity.

And where did I fit into that picture?

I was the adopted daughter of William Summers, a Gamma in Thorn Pack. No political weight. No bloodline leverage. No standing that would matter in any alliance negotiation. I ran a small medical practice and I barely kept the lights on.

And I had gotten drunk and bitten the Alpha King of the Eastern Territory.

If Alexis lost even one potential alliance because of what happened last night - if any pack interpreted my mark as a challenge to his authority, or worse, as something that destabilized his position - the consequences wouldn't stop with me.

They would ripple outward. To Northern Pack. To Thorn Pack. To William.

The thought pressed down on my chest like a stone.

I thought about going to William. He was a Gamma. He understood pack politics in a way I never had. He would know what to do.

But I hadn't seen him in almost a year. He and Margaret had been bad for a long time, and somewhere in the middle of their falling apart, I had quietly stopped being a priority for either of them. Margaret had never really treated me like a daughter anyway. She'd been civil, occasionally, but never warm.

There was no one to call.

There was no one to ask.

I was alone in this, the same way I was alone in most things.

I turned and started pacing back the other direction.

"You're very loud, little healer."

Alexis's voice hit me like a hand on the shoulder.

I spun around.

He wasn't lounging anymore. Somewhere between when I'd turned away and now, he had straightened up completely. He stood with his full height, shoulders square, and there was nothing casual about the way he held himself. Every inch of him radiated the kind of authority that didn't need to announce itself.

His green eyes were calm. Completely, unnervingly calm. Like he could see exactly what I'd been thinking and had already accounted for all of it.

He started walking toward me.

Each step was unhurried. Deliberate. The room felt smaller with every one he took, the air between us thickening until I could feel it pressing against my skin.

Cora stirred.

Stop it, I told her sharply.

She ignored me completely. She made a low, satisfied sound in the back of my mind and pressed closer to the surface, like she was trying to get as near to him as she could.

He stopped just a few inches in front of me.

I had to tilt my head slightly to hold his gaze. His scent was everywhere now - cedar and mint, warm and clean - and I hated how much steadier it made me feel.

"I have a solution," he said.

His voice was even. Measured. Like he was stating something that had already been decided.

I didn't answer. I couldn't. I just stared at him.

"We hold a formal ceremony," he said. "A proper marking ceremony."

My breath caught.

"You will become my Luna."

The words hit me like a wall.

I took a step back without thinking. My legs found the edge of the bed and I sat down hard, my hands gripping the mattress on either side of me.

"A - a mating bond?" My voice came out unsteady. Barely above a whisper. "With you?"

He followed. He didn't sit. He stood in front of me, close enough that his shadow fell across my lap, and looked down at me with that same unreadable calm.

"Yes," he said. One word. Final. Like there was no version of this conversation where the answer was different.

"It prevents any challenge to my authority," he continued, his tone shifting into something almost clinical. "A formal bond removes all ambiguity. No one can question the alliance between Thorn Pack and Storm Pack. Every rumor, every whisper - it all disappears the moment the bond is confirmed."

He said it like he was walking me through a tactical decision.

Like this wasn't a choice that would change every single thing about my life.

Cora exploded.

Mate, mate, mate - she was practically singing it, spinning in circles somewhere deep in my chest, absolutely delighted with herself and with him and with all of it.

I pressed my lips together and tried to think past her noise.

Just hours ago, I had been standing in a parking lot while Dorian looked at me like I was nothing. Like everything I had given him - years of patience, years of waiting, years of quietly believing - had meant nothing at all.

And now I was sitting in the Alpha King's bedroom, being asked to become his Luna.

The universe had a terrible sense of humor.

"To be precise, little healer," Alexis said, his voice cutting through the chaos in my head one more time.

He held my gaze without flinching.

"I am asking you to become my Luna."