They didn’t have the ceremony until the afternoon, so Jada had all day to stew and suffer as she paced the confines of the dressing room. Three cousins guarded the door, and her mother kept an eye on her inside as they shoved her into a simple white wedding dress and curled her hair.

Jada stared in the mirror and tried not to focus on the dark circles under her eyes, which remained no matter how much makeup her mother put on her. Jada played with one of the cheap plastic hair clips with a fake diamond on them, her voice soft. “I don’t know why you’re bothering to do my hair. It’s not like I have to look pretty. He’s already signed the papers.”

“You need to look healthy,” her mother said sharply. “And yes, pretty. Even if that’s a stretch and there’s not enough makeup or fake eyelashes in the world to make you presentable. We should have gotten something to stuff your bra, too. If the bear doesn’t think you can bear children or he doesn’t like how you behave tonight, he can still reject you. It’s the one clause in the contract.”

“Do I get a clause if he’s a raging alcoholic or an asshole?” Jada didn’t let herself hope.

“No.” Her mother snatched away the hair clip and handed it to the distant cousin doing her hair. “You don’t get to say no.”

Which was total bullshit.

Helen, her mother, snapped her fingers in front of Jada’s nose and made her jump. “Do you hear me, girl? The future of your family depends on you being a good girl and doing what you’re told, whether that’s your father or the bear. The bear will take you to bed tonight and you do exactly what he says so the marriage and the alliance are sealed. Do you understand?”

Jada wanted to argue. She even drew breath to shout a denial and shove to her feet and run away, or at least make a break for it, but her mother’s eyes sparked red and the leopard stared at her instead. She gritted her teeth as her stomach sank and nausea took over. She really didn’t want to think about the wedding night. Maybe she could tell the bear she wasn’t a virgin, and the bears would call the whole thing off...

“I don’t want to do this,” she whispered, drawing on her own leopard’s strength to grow a backbone and attempt one last stand. “It’s not fair. I want a bigger life than this. I don’t know this guy, I don’t love him, I just—”

“Love?” Helen barked an ugly laugh and folded her arms over her chest, cruelty making her lip curl. “What does love have to do with anything? Do you think any of us married for love? Grow up, little girl. The real world isn’t like all the movies you watch and the dreamy paintings you love so much. This is about protecting the family and the territory, and love doesn’t have a single thing to do with you.”

“Just because you and Dad are miserable doesn’t mean—”

She didn’t see her mother’s hand move until it cracked against her cheek, and she pitched out of the chair, her hair pulling painfully as the cousin cursed and lost hold of the curls. Jada stared at her mother as Helen loomed over her, lowering her voice as she pointed a shaking finger at Jada. “You ungrateful child. Go ahead and sass your husband; he’ll beat it out of you soon enough, and maybe you’ll finally learn some manners. You do exactly as you’re told today, Jada Elizabeth, or we’ll tell the bear to beat you and tie you up before he has his way with you. Do not test me.”

Then she turned and stormed out, leaving Jada to climb back on the little bench with the help of her cousin. That time, when she looked in the mirror, she didn’t see the dark circles but instead a red handprint and tears running down her cheeks. Jada took a shaky breath. She straightened her shoulders and pushed away the hope that had kindled in her chest at the promise of an escape. There wasn’t any escape.

Her cousin squeezed her shoulder but didn’t say anything as she started working on the mess of Jada’s hair.

The tears kept coming, regardless of how Jada pinched her thigh and arm to draw the pain somewhere else and distract herself from each of her mother’s words, and Jada struggled to keep from sliding into an ugly cry. She needed to keep herself together and find her composure. There wasn’t much time until she had to walk down the aisle and face the man she had to marry, and she couldn’t rely on the thin veil to hide her misery.

She dug her nails into her knees as she stared at herself in the mirror. “It’s for the family. If I don’t marry this bear, the family will be in jeopardy. The wolves will come for us and everyone will be killed. This is my purpose. I will marry him and have babies to continue the leopard line. I must…I must obey him or we risk breaking the alliance.”

Jada repeated it, whispering it all to herself over and over and over until her heartbeat slowed and the tears dried up. She felt completely numb, all the way to her soul. That would get her through the day, and the night. She could grieve tomorrow. It just had to wait.

She thought about the bear painting she’d done just a few days earlier, but it seemed like a childish dream to think her husband would be anything like the painting. More likely he’d be exactly like the adults in her clan—stubborn, conservative, power-hungry, and overbearing. She already felt trampled.

It felt like just a blink before her mother returned, expression hard and unforgiving. “Keep yourself together. It’s time.”

Jada wobbled to her feet, patting at her cheeks again to try and dry them, and refused to look at her mother as she walked to the door. Her cousin jumped forward, though, and whispered, “Your veil.”

She fixed the veil to Jada’s hair and carefully lowered it over her face, then hugged Jada tight. It was the first time she could remember being hugged in months. As soon as she stepped outside, her male cousins flanked her, and one took her arm to lead her to the path that ended in a large, neutral clearing where all the ceremonies between the bears and leopards took place. Jada concentrated on placing her feet deliberately and slowly, though she felt like she hovered outside of her body. None of it felt real.

She wanted to find her true mate and live a real life, to finally have dreams she could pursue and celebrate. Her throat tightened again at the thought and Jada shoved all of that deep down in her chest, locking it away. Something else to grieve tomorrow. She had to keep her composure, to keep it together. If the bear rejected her, she didn’t know what would happen to her.

Knowing her parents and the rest of the elders, Jada wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up exiled to die in the forest or sacrificed to the wolves.

She stumbled when she saw all the people in the clearing, seated in two sections with an aisle down the middle. The leopards occupied one side, and the bears took the other. At the end of the aisle waited two men: one was her uncle and the only ordained minister in either group, and the other was a complete stranger. He must have been the bear.

She couldn’t see much of them through the veil and a few tears. She paused at the end of the aisle and everyone stood up to look at her. Jada refused to look at the leopards who waited in the trees above—maybe to guard against wolves attacking, or maybe to prevent her from running. She looked back and found her mother and father both standing behind her, frowning, as if they expected she’d take off as well.

Before she could take a breath to ask for their advice or encouragement or even for them to reconsider, her father frowned and shook his head. “Stop crying. No man wants to marry a blotchy-faced child. Straighten your shoulders, turn yourself around, and do your duty.”

And that was it. That was the only “encouragement” she’d get. 

Jada shook her head as she looked at them, amazed that she had some kind of a soul after being raised by people like them, and raised the veil enough to look both of them in the eyes. “I hope he takes me away and I never see either of you again. I don’t give a shit about this family or your alliance. After this—you’re on your own. I’m done.”

She didn’t wait for their reactions or response, and instead dropped the veil and squared her shoulders once more. Fine. She was on her own, but she’d been on her own for a long time.

One of the much younger bears played a violin with a melancholy song—what could have been a ballad but sounded more like a dirge in her current mood—as Jada walked down the aisle. Her steps slowed the closer she got to the end and her future husband, and butterflies threatened to explode out of her stomach. She clasped her hands together to keep them from shaking too visibly, and realized too late that she hadn’t picked up the bouquet in the dressing room. Not that it really mattered—it was made of roses, and she hated roses.

And then she stood in front of her uncle and the complete stranger, and caught her first glimpse of her husband. He was tall and broad and looked very capable, maybe rough around the edges with hard blue eyes and a dark bushy beard. She swallowed hard as she faced him when her uncle gestured, and stared at the stranger’s chest and the neat tie and sport coat he wore. At least he kind of dressed up for the wedding, more than she’d expected from the way everyone described the bears.

Jada focused on breathing normally as her uncle started the traditional ceremony and the late afternoon sun beat down on her. Her hands still shook, and as she stared at the ground at his feet, desperate that he wouldn’t see the few tears that still lingered on her eyelashes, the bear reached out and gently took her hands in his. Her chest constricted; she hadn’t heard the part from her uncle about joining hands. She needed to pay attention more.

But when she listened, she realized it wasn’t the ceremony that had the bear reaching for her. He squeezed her hands gently, almost reassuring, and she dared a look at his face. The bear smiled, a hint of sadness in his eyes, and took away all of Jada’s breath. He looked exactly like her painting. And he didn’t look mad that she trembled a little and wasn’t a beaming ray of sunshine.

For the first time in a long time, Jada felt hope grow in her heart. Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad after all.