A Thousand Dawns Of Penance

My bonding ceremony with Alpha Logan was plagued by one disaster after another.

His mother fell into a coma, and his childhood sweetheart died in a car crash.

Logan blamed it all on me, the harbinger of misfortune.

He forced me to kneel before the pack's altar to atone.

For a full one thousand days.

My body finally gave out. Waking up in the hospital, I saw him and his childhood sweetheart, emerging from the maternity unit.

Logan and his mother hovered around her, their faces glowing with joy. "Once you give birth to our pack's heir, I'll make you my Luna."

"Willa will have been atoning for a thousand days by then. Once we have the pup, we can finally let her go."

A bitter smile formed on my lips as I clutched the terminal diagnosis in my hand.

"Logan, I won't live to see that day."