Adam looked in torment as he fell, kneeling before the panel. As the council members sat back down, he spoke again. "I offer myself for disciplinary action."

I glanced up to Nate in puzzlement silently asking what he did? Nate just shrugged. He didn't know anything either.

The center councilman scolded. "Beta Adam, we have no concerns demanding disciplinary action of you. Gamma Cassandra has spoken in full that all your recent actions of war were justified and that you stayed on course of orders always. You have no need of this."

He shook his head bowing to the floor. "No council. Not of war. I need disciplinary action because of my mate."

We all reared in shock.

His mate?

His voice was pain. "I rejected her."

My hand came to my mouth. Oh no. Poor Adam!

The black-haired woman spoke with incredulity. "Rejecting a mate isn't a cause needing of disciplinary action either Beta Adam. That choosing is yours to make. Do not waste this council's time."

He gulped a ragged breath to the floor. "It is when I didn't do it correctly."

Gasps from the council and even Nate beside me.

"Then continue," she urged in quiet anger.

"It was in the human city. She was tiny. Human. A child, just this little girl. Thirteen, fourteen years old. And I was a beta! I thought I couldn't have a human for a mate. I thought she was weak. I thought she was too frail for our world, and I was disgusted. I didn't want her. I'm so sorry!"

His voice choked in anguish.

"I saw her at a restaurant. I heard the others at the table call her name. I followed when she went to the restroom. When she came out, I rejected her."

"The table used her full name?" The blonde Councilman Daniel asked skeptically.

"No. I used my full name. But I just used her first name. She said...

Okay.

...'okay'. I thought that was a good enough acceptance and I ran. I left her there and I ran."

A new wave of gross injustice filled the room from the surrounding wolves. For only five council wolves a lot of words of outrage flew over top of each other.

"Calm," Nate's command beckoned the room back.

A moment of silence happened before the center old man asked, "was this recently? In Elise's diner? You could find the girl. Maybe Miss Winters could help. You can properly reject her before it's too late."

He shook his head, hands bracing himself against the floor. "It was ten years ago."

More appalled outcries.

"He killed the girl!"

"This is unjust to the highest!"

"He shouldn't be alive!"

"That poor child!"

"Disgusting!"

Another Nate command, "quiet!"

The center councilman's face was melded into distaste. "Beta Adam, this is a very grave allegation. You know our laws on rejections are for the protections of both parties' lives. A wrongful rejection will result in death to both sides. You have murdered that poor girl."

Adam's face came up in despair. "No, no. She's alive. I can feel everything of hers. Pain, sorrow, happiness, grief, everything for the last ten years. I feel her every day."

The scarred man yelled, "well of course you can feel her! Your wolf never recognized a true rejection!"

The grey-haired council woman shook her head in sadness, "I'm sorry Dear. But these are false feelings. You are imagining them. She was human. Ten years, Boy. She's gone. Humans can't live with a failed rejection more than a year or two and if she was a child, maybe not even the full year. To be honest, it's difficult to believe this happened ten years ago. You my boy, by all previous records should also be long since dead."

Adam bowed. "No. It's true."

Councilman Daniel broke in. "He's a beta. He's used his strength to fight it."

The scarred man shook his head. "Beta or not, even Alphas would not be able to resist that level of rejection pain for so long, especially after her death."

The dark woman was outraged. "Even if we were to believe you that this human has been alive this long, she surely never mated anyone. Never had interest in family, children, or even love! You know how important those things are of life, human or wolf! If you didn't murder her, you murdered any chance she had at a real life!"

Adam's face fell to his hands. "I know! I know! It's because of me!"

The center councilman tapped his fingers in front of him. "If we are to believe that this rejection did occur, whether it was long ago or not, it is a grave misjustice and must be penalized."

A round of agreeds filtered through the air.

"Wrongful rejection is a serious sin in the eyes of our laws. It is a sin against nature. Even a sin against Moon Goddess herself."

"I know!" Adam spoke in horrific agony.

The councilman continued. "You come forward to this court willingly with this information, even though it possibly took ten years' time. What's done is done. So we won't hold out the true punishment of death for the child's stolen life. But what you did is against our strictest of policies. There will need be punishment. So henceforth Adam Hunter you are stripped of your Beta title. You are also banned from Lone Raine pack and will be labeled a rogue. And so no other pack mistakenly takes you in, you will be branded with the Goddess traitor's mark. How do you plead this verdict? Do you accept?"

Adam nodded in defeat. "I accept, Councilman."

"All in favor."

"Yea."

The center councilman turned to Councilman Daniel. "Please, ready the brand."

Councilman Daniel nodded and slipped from his chair to the fire and sat a long strip of metal inside.

The center elderly man continued. "You will leave Lone Raine and never return. Live your life as best you can as a rogue. But I fear that a wrongful rejection and roguehood will not end well for you." His face then came down in grandfatherly sadness. "I'm sorry this had to happen Adam. You have been good to this pack, but all choices have consequences. This is one you'll need to live with."

Adam looked up to the man and nodded. He then silently took his shirt from over his head and tossed it to the tile. "I'm ready, Councilman."

The elderly man nodded to the fire and Councilman Daniel pulled the metal rod from of the coals. The end had an interlacing double circle symbol that was flaming red.

They called it a brand? Was that going into his skin? No.

No!

I wouldn't let it happen! I couldn't let it happen!

No!

Not to Adam!

"No!" My voice echoed through the hall, and I ran to Adam throwing myself across his awaiting bare back.

"Human!? What are you doing? Leave this council!" Black-haired woman.

"No! I won't let you do it! You can't do this!"

Adam pulled me off his back and knelt me beside him, tears stung my eyes at his agonized expression. He tenderly caressed my face. "No, it's alright Elise. I deserve this. You can't stop it."

"Alpha, please allow us to fulfill our punishments," the black-haired woman snarled.

I felt myself being lifted into the air as Nate's arms wrapped around me. "Come on Elise. You don't want to see this."

"No!" I screamed, hitting and struggling against Nate's strong carry. "Please, let me go!"

The man stepped toward Adam with the searing brand again.

I couldn't let it happen.

"No, please don't!" I cried to the councilman. "Adam!"

Nate stepped me to the door, and I leaned up from his shoulder and yelled to the room, "I refuse to press charges against Adam's wrongful rejection of me!"

Nate's movements stopped under me.

The branding man halted.

The council looked on with wide petrified eyes.

Everything stopped.

The room was still and silent.

Nate's grip released enough that I twisted myself away and ran to Adam's side. I knelt back to the floor beside him and clung to his shoulders. His heartbreak was evident in every movement as his hands rubbed through my hair and held my neck. His eyes were the dull blue of inner torment. "I'm so sorry Elise. Everything. Everything that happened to you is my fault. You have no wolf. You have no family. You have no home. It's all my fault! I'm sorry!"

"It's okay, it's okay," I soothed, my fingers stroking over his bare arms.

"No. No, it's not. I did it all. All of this is because of me."

"It's okay," I said quickly and then my hands went to caress his wrists and I looked deep within him. "I don't accept."

He looked stunned a moment and began to move his hands away from me. "No, no. You're right. You shouldn't."

"No!" I grabbed his hands tight in place. "No. I mean that little girl with the pigtail braids and the pink jumper coming out of an IHOP bathroom, to the most beautiful man she's ever seen, saying the strangest things she's ever heard, does not accept. I do not accept your rejection, Adam."

His eyes widened and his shoulders heaved. "Elise. You can't mean it. I caused all this pain for you. It was me."

I squeezed his wrists, my heart opening up in a way I never thought possible. "Then let's try to fix it."

"I can't. I shouldn't. You deserve better than me," his eyes shown so painful.

"Adam, please."

"You can't mean it."

"Yes. Fix it."

"Are..." he hesitated, a sliver of hope, "are you sure?"

"Fix. It."

A cautious smile pulled at his lips, his blue eyes brightening a shade. "Okay."

After a few moments of us staring in silence, he grinned in real. He stood and pulled me up with him. I felt my own stomach flare in anticipation.

He moved our right arms and pushed them together so we both had our forearms against each other, elbows at right angles. He intertwined our fingers and I already felt love seeping like warm honey down our hands.

Suddenly the air flashed electric around us as he stood tall. "I, Adam Noah Hunter, call upon the people of Lone Raine, my mate, and Goddess herself to atone for my transgression."

It was like a cannon blast had called each person of the pack to attention with a wide mind link.

"I am here to correct my past judgement. I rejected my mate. I ask forgiveness from her, you all, and Moon Goddess herself. Goddess knows why each person is given their specific mate and I went against her omnipotent judgement. I realize that my actions were wrong and beg for my mate to allow my acceptance after all. I pledge to continue to make up for my error until my dying day."

His eyes revealed the piercing blue I'd come to know, and I beamed.

He resumed, a generous smile filling his face. "I, Adam Noah Hunter, do beg forgiveness from Elise Charlotte Thatcher, my mate."

I gasped as some force of life splashed across me like a bucket of icy water. Chills and goosebumps raced up my body. Electricity consumed the air.

He leaned forward to my ear. His breath was hot and heavy against my neck. "Use your real full name. Accept or reject in the name of Moon Goddess' authority." He bent back expectantly.

Real full name.

I was a Thatcher.

I glowed at his handsome face watching me. "I, Elise Charlotte... Thatcher, under authority of Moon Goddess, do accept Adam Noah Hunter's request for forgiveness. I accept him as my mate."

The warm honey feeling enveloped clear around us like a spiraling blanket and Adam's grin widened further and more handsome than I'd ever known it.

He let our hold go and lifted me into his arms, pressing a greedy kiss into my lips. My arms came around his neck and my feet raised from the floor as I kissed back. It was bliss. The feeling like rich colors racing around us in shooting arrows of happiness. The kiss so world bending and beautiful. I pressed again. So much incredible love and joy blossomed inside me like I'd never felt before. The world, so dismal before, so muted, so full of grey and now I was seeing life in its full vivid glory.

I pulled from the kiss and leaned my head back as he spun me around.

Joy.

I'd never felt such happiness before.

The feeling in my heart hammered it and the lightness across my body proved it.

He let me back on the ground but held me close. His hand went to smooth my hair. "Elise, I'm so sorry."

"I forgive you," I whispered.

He smiled sadly hands now holding at my hips.

"So I guess I'm a rogue now. Would you let me live at the farm with you? We can both be on neutral territory."

My face then pulled down in objection. "No. No, you can't be a rogue. You're part of Lone Raine. It's your home."

A throat cleared from behind. "Elise."

I turned towards Nate. He stood curved in saddened thought, one arm around his midsection, one rubbing his jaw. He pointed his chin to the panel. "Use the pushy look."

The feeling of power overwhelmed me then and I would have fallen except for Adam's grasp around me. But I knew what Nate meant.

The pushy look.

I stood from Adam and addressed the council, strength opening from every syllable I spoke. It's like I already knew what words to use to create the force. "I, Elise Charlotte Thatcher, address the council to forbid the action of branding Adam Noah Hunter. I demand his reinstatement as a full member to this pack and his title of Beta to be restored!"

All eyes widened on me.

Nate stepped forward and touched delicately at my shoulder. "I, Nate Howard Odin, Alpha of Lone Raine, second this motion."

All council members dropped their heads, bent to the table under his alpha power. "Agreed."

The center councilman did not look up. "As you wish Alpha Nate. Adam Hunter you are reinstated as a full pack member of Lone Raine, as well as the title of Beta returned."

"It is done." Nate's hand went down, and the council looked back up.

The man with the scar spoke in awe. "Then she truly is Milo's girl? The next in command for Wilde Claw?"

The woman beside him shook her head. "She can't be. She's human!"

"She has the alpha mantle though. We all felt it emerge."

Councilman Daniel placed the rod back in the fire and resumed his seat. "She's not human. But she has lost her wolf. The faulty rejection must have destroyed it before she even had a chance to shift."

Adam hung his head in shame. "I believe that is what happened."

I wrapped my arms around him and held to his side, but the information fought a battle in my head. I really was a werewolf, or at least I used to have the power to be one? "What's the alpha mantle?"

"It's the emerging of your authority," the centerman answered. "You do not have a full alpha command, you are not a true alpha yet, but we can sense the presence within you." He looked to Adam. "It came on with her Thatcher name being called to by her mate."

I felt it too.

He continued. "You are the rightful next alpha of Wolfe Claw. When will you turn twenty-five?"

"In November."

The man with the scar rushed in. "Think of the accords we could have with her pack by our side. We could rule this region."

"I don't want to be an alpha. I can't be." I spoke before things could get out of hand. "I'm just a human without a wolf."

The elderly man turned the scarred man's way and chastened. "Councilman Eric, we are a peaceful people. We will not be forging pack alliances merely for more power." He turned back to me. "But you should think about taking on the role, even without a wolf, you could be a very powerful leader." He glanced to the violet patterns on my arms. "It will be interesting to see the alpha power grow as the wolfsbane heals."

I slipped my hand into Adam's and looked up to him, a smile slipping to my face when he glanced down to the affection. "And what if I'd rather just be a beta female?"

Adam brought our hands up to kiss my knuckles. It made my skin flame with love.

The councilman grinned his grandfatherly smile. "I thought that might be your answer."

The elderly woman added. "Maybe your wolf will come back in time, Child."

Councilman Daniel frowned. "I doubt it. A decade of loss. Even with the alpha mantle restored and the faulty rejection atoned, that is far too long."

"It doesn't matter." I said looking back to Adam. "I don't need a wolf. I'm just lucky to finally understand who I am."

"And you truly are a Thatcher. This will come quite a shock to Alpha Milo I imagine." The center man mused.

The elderly woman shook her head. "I don't think it will. With how strongly worded his clause to get her back is, I'd imagine he still knows. Deep down."

Councilman Daniel raised tall in his seat as if realizing something. "That's right. This contract is void. We need to make a new draft. She signed as a Winters. We will have to send as a Thatcher."

"Can we edit the counteroffer then?" I asked timidly.

"What do you wish to change?"

"I don't think I need the farm anymore. I have my place here." I squeezed Adam's hand. "I wish to refuse their claim to me. I'll visit Wilde Claw, often if I must, but I want my home to be Lone Raine."

But wait.

Maybe the offer didn't stand anymore?

I turned to glance at Nate, my eyes full of worry. Would he still want me there? Did this feel like a rejection to him? The pain I must be causing him!

He knew what I was asking and pulled me from Adam's hold. He gave me a hug and placed a chaste kiss to my head. "Of course you are welcome at Lone Raine still." He released me back to Adam. Even through his hurt eyes, a smirk appeared. "Can't have my best friend's girl in enemy territory."

"I'm so sorry," I whispered in anguish.

"No Sweetheart. You belong with your mate. You belong with Adam."

"Thank you," I spoke softly.

Adam reached over and the two did some powerful handshake, where their hands were further up their arms in a strong grip. "Brothers."

"Brothers to the end." Nate leaned in for a one arm embrace with Adam. He then turned to the far right. "Councilman Daniel, please rewrite the script denying her release to Wilde Claw. But keep in that her previous territory be declared neutral ground in Elise's name."

"Yes Alpha." He put his pen to paper.

Nate reached down to the tile and grabbed Adam's discarded shirt. He handed it out to him. "So you've been hiding a faulty mate rejection for ten years?"

Adam nodded, putting the shirt back on.

"A few years back, when you didn't want to run with us for weeks, that was her bad fall?"

A single nod.

I looked to him in horror. "What fall? Wait, do you mean when I fell out of my apple tree? You felt that?"

He looked down to me. "I've felt everything. I feel everything." He touched at my tender neck sting. "I know this one hurts the most right now."

"I'm so sorry." My hands came to my face in shock. It seemed horrific to feel someone else's pains for even a single day, let alone years and years.

"It's good though. Then I can know how to help you." His pressed his palm flat against the sting and the pain started to drift away. "I think it helps us both when I can be close."

A shy smile. "I have seemed to feel better around you."

Nate smirked to himself. "And I unknowingly allowed every touch."

I bent my head bashfully.

Nate touched at my chin to push my face up. "No, don't be worried Elise. I'm glad he was there to help you feel better."