Page 8 of Season's Greetings
The moment Daniel touched Matthew’s back, he felt it—their connection.
He’d tried to ignore it. Block out the memories. But the more he pushed them away, the more his mind latched on. Suddenly, he wasn’t in his office anymore. He was back in a quiet grove just beyond the pack lands. The two of them dancing under the full moon, snow softly falling around them, their bodies moving in the fire’s light.
He hadn’t truly thought about that night in years. Not past the ache.
But now, with Claudia spitting venom and elders clutching their Council seals like holy relics, the memory cracked open like a wound. One time would never heal.
There were moments when he wondered if they would have risked their future, had they taken time to fully grasp the effects of the Hollow Moon Rite.
Nobody practiced it anymore—not since the Bond Council introduced the Soul bind. They claimed the old ways lacked oversight, lacked clarity. But they never rescinded its power. Not legally.
Daniel should know. No one but him had been foolhardy enough to try it.
Not alone.
With Matthew.
The thing was, he hadn’t meant to. Okay—he sort of had. But not entirely. Things had just gotten out of hand.
He remembered asking if Matthew was sure he wanted to bind their souls. He’d warned him,“Once we do this… there’s no going back.”
Matthew’s eyes had shone with so much hope and determination. How could Daniel have said no?
He’d held the ceremonial oil in a carved bull horn between them, his hands shaking—not just from the cold, but from the sheer weight of the moment. He’d touched a hand to Matthew’s soft cheek and felt it move with a shy smile before he spoke.
“We’re already bonded. This just makes it truth.”
They’d followed the ritual: offering fur twined together to the fire, taken from their shifted forms. Then, three drops of shared blood into the snow. Then came the words—the vow to protect, love, defy, and endure as long as they both drew breath. Finally, they cast strands of their human hair into the fire.
They’d held each other close as they watched the flames dance, and their bond was forged.
Gone in a breath.
No moon howl. No elders. No ledger entry.
Just the two of them—and the bond.
And later, the silence that followed when Matthew turned his back on Daniel to follow the wishes of his pack.
Blinking hard, Daniel snatched back his hand, his fingers trailing the faint scar over his collarbone—the one that glowed faintly under moonlight.
Claudia could screech about legality, about propriety. The Council could call it void. But the law—old and quiet and written in bone—still recognized Hollow Moon rites.
As did the bond mark that pulsed beneath his skin like regret.
Turning his back for a moment, he took a deep, steadying breath before returning to his seat, his mask of indifference firmly in place.
In the back of his mind, a small voice taunted him:
He chose me. Once. And that truth doesn’t die just because time did. Not even when he walked away.
Chapter 6
Daniel
Either he was having a heart attack, or the moon was playing havoc with his bond mark.
The sensation was a mix of itch and burn, and it was making him extra grouchy. Grady had barely made it out of his office alive after suggesting he take Matthew to thecabinin the woods.
