Ren stood frozen in the center of the cabin, the heavy, suffocating pressure of a hundred pairs of eyes drilling into his back.
His heart was hammering so loudly he could hear it in his ears. These were the people he had bled for, the people who had looked up to him to hunt the mountain deer and fend off the rogue wolf packs. But then he looked back at Hana.
She was sitting perfectly still on the pelts, her dark eyes completely unblinking, waiting for his decision. She wasn't begging him, and she wasn't pressuring him. She was giving him a choice.
Ren closed his eyes, took a deep, grounding breath, and when he opened them, the anxious, sunshine-brained cat was completely gone. His posture straightened, his black-striped tail flattening into a rigid line of absolute certainty.
"Yes, Chief," Ren said, his voice ringing out clear, steady, and loud enough for every beastman outside the hut to hear. "I am joining her household. I plan to give Hana my mark."
