[POV: Atlas]
I didn't think it would feel like this.
After Draven's announcement, after his kiss in front of the whole pack, and the way his voice rang out when he claimed me not just as his mate, but as his equal, something had shifted.
Not just in me. In everything.
The way people looked at me changed. Some smiled brighter, spoke softer, even dipped their heads when I passed.
Others stared a second too long, like they were trying to reconcile the broken boy I'd once been with the man standing in front of them now.
I could feel the weight of their expectations settling on my shoulders like a new pelt. One I wasn't sure I'd grown into yet.
But I knew one thing: I didn't want favors.
"I'm still a Junior Warrior," I told Piper, the moment she offered to pull me from field training to help prepare for the ceremony. "I still show up. I still bleed. This title doesn't make me fragile."
She looked at me for a long moment, her sharp eyes assessing, then nodded.
"Fine. But if I catch you favoring a twisted ankle or dodging drills to keep your ceremony clothes clean, I'm putting you in swamp detail."
I grinned. "Fair."
Of course, not everyone handled it so gracefully.
Ava, Levi, and Kobe cornered me by the training circle a few days after the announcement. Ava had her arms crossed and that dangerous fire in her eyes that meant someone was about to get an earful.
"You're my best friend, Atlas," she hissed under her breath. "And you didn't think to mention you were, oh, I don't know—mated to our Alpha?"
Levi raised an eyebrow. "Seriously. That's not the kind of thing you just forget to bring up over sparring."
"I didn't forget," I muttered, heat climbing the back of my neck. "I just… I didn't know how. Everything happened so fast."
Their stares didn't budge.
"I thought if I told you, it would change how you saw me. I didn't want that."
Ava's eyes softened. "You idiot."
And then she pulled me into a hug that knocked the breath from my lungs.
"I'm still mad at you," she said into my shoulder, "but I'm also proud of you. You deserve this."
Levi ruffled my hair while Kobe muttered, "Bet Draven's regretting it already."
We all laughed. Well, almost all of us.
Talia didn't speak to me. Not in training nor in the hallways. Not during pack meals or preparation for the ceremony.
But I felt her. Her anger, her hatred, like a hot breath on the back of my neck every time I turned a corner.
She thought the position beside the Alpha was hers by merit. That I had stolen it, bypassed the years she'd poured into earning it. And maybe, in some ways, she had a point.
But what none of them knew, what only Draven had seen, was how hard I had fought just to survive. Not rise. Not shine. Just breathe.
Still, she didn't try to sabotage the ceremony. She helped the others prepare, her face a blank mask, her tone clipped and professional. But her silence cut more deeply than any insult she could have offered.
The day of the bonding ceremony arrived with silver clouds and a glowing moon already bright before the sun had fully set.
The air carried the scent of pine smoke and ceremonial herbs, sharp and clean, and the forest around the sacred clearing hummed with the quiet energy of something ancient preparing to witness.
I stood in the clearing behind the packhouse, dressed in a fitted black tunic embroidered with silver thread: symbols of the Moon Goddess woven alongside the Crimson Fang crest.
My silver-white hair had been combed back, and at the base of my throat hung the wolf-fang pendant, Draven's mother's charm, resting against my collarbone where the moonlight caught it.
My hands were shaking.
Draven stood beside me in full ceremonial armor: dark leather and polished steel that made the breadth of his shoulders look even more imposing than usual. But when he reached for my hand, his fingers were warm and steady.
"You're nervous," he said softly, without judgment.
I nodded.
"You're going to be brilliant," he added, brushing his thumb over the back of my hand. "You already are."
I looked up at him, searching for doubt. Found none. Just those dark eyes, steady and sure, holding mine with the kind of certainty that made the ground feel solid beneath my feet even when everything else was shifting.
"I'm scared," I whispered.
"Then we'll be scared together."
When Elder Axel stepped forward, the clearing fell silent.
The moon was full above us, casting soft silver light over the circle of pack members gathered in concentric rings around the ritual stones. Candles flickered along the ancient markers, their flames barely moving in the still air. The scent of sage and smoke drifted through the clearing like a living thing.
Axel's voice rang out, deep and steady. "Tonight, we gather under the gaze of the Moon Goddess to bless the union of Alpha Draven and his fated mate, Atlas of Crimson Fang. Through blood, spirit, and bond, they unite as Alpha and his chosen."
He began the incantation in the Old Tongue, hands raised to the sky, the pack echoing the words in reverent harmony. The syllables were ancient, guttural, resonating in my chest like a second heartbeat.
I closed my eyes. The energy in the clearing shifted.
I felt it at first like a whisper: cool air brushing against my skin, the sudden stillness of the night pressing inward. But then it grew.
Power surged through me like lightning trapped in my veins. My spine arched involuntarily, muscles locking from my shoulders down to the base of my back. My breath caught.
The ground pulsed beneath my feet, and the moon above us brightened—not gradually, but all at once, as though someone had turned the sky into a floodlight.
Gasps rippled through the crowd.
Elder Axel's voice faltered.
My eyes flew open and met his stunned, almost frightened gaze across the ritual circle.
His lips parted. "Moon above…"
The moonlight didn't just shine on me, it poured into me. My skin glowed with it, soft and luminous, the silver-white of my hair blazing like a torch. Hyde stirred in my chest, alert and thrumming with ancient energy I'd never felt before: vast, deep, older than anything
I had words for. It filled me from the inside out, expanding through every vein and nerve until I felt like I might burst or burn or transcend.
Draven's hand tightened around mine, steady and sure, but when I looked up at him, even he looked shaken. His dark eyes were wide, his jaw set, the muscles in his forearm rigid where our hands were clasped.
I didn't know what this meant. But from the look on Elder Axel's face… Neither did he.