Chapter 10: The Woman Chosen for Luna
1323 Words
Selene Ashford wore white to the emergency council.
It was a clever choice. White made grief look pure. White made innocence visible. White made the bloodred council chamber seem vulgar around her, as if everyone else had arrived dressed for violence while she alone had come for peace.
Kael noticed the performance the moment he entered.
Once, he might have admired it.
Now he only wondered how many lies she had hidden behind silk.
"Alpha," Selene said, rising from her chair.
The council elders stood with her. Six old wolves, three allied Betas, and a priestess of the Moon Temple who watched Kael with unreadable eyes. At the center of the crescent table lay the ceremonial contract naming Selene as future Luna of Blackthorne Pack.
Kael had not signed it.
Someone had placed his seal beside it anyway.
Rhys growled softly behind him.
Kael lifted one hand, and the sound stopped.
He had spent the ride from the cottage to the fortress rehearsing restraint. Elara and Rowan remained behind with guards he trusted, but the thought did not comfort him. Trust had become a narrow bridge over a deep fall. Every familiar hallway in his own fortress now looked like a place where enemies might have passed messages, hidden weapons, smiled at his grief.
Once, Blackthorne had felt like the center of his power.
Today, it felt like the scene of a crime he had been too proud to solve.
"Who authorized this meeting?" he asked.
Elder Voss, oldest of the council and proudest of it, folded his hands over his cane. "The pack cannot drift because its Alpha has taken ill."
"I am standing."
"Barely."
Selene's eyes moved over Kael's face with perfect concern. "You should be resting. When I heard you were poisoned, I prayed all night."
"For my recovery?"
Her smile flickered.
Only for a heartbeat. Only because he was watching for it.
"Of course."
Kael walked to the table. Every step pulled at the wound beneath his ribs, but he kept his face cold. Pain was information. Nothing more.
"Then your prayers were answered."
Elder Voss cleared his throat. "Alpha, this hostile tone is unnecessary. Lady Selene has remained loyal through difficult years. The pack expected the Luna announcement before your attack. We cannot delay again."
"Cannot?"
"Should not."
"There is a difference."
The priestess leaned forward. "The Blood Moon strengthens bonds. A Luna chosen then would stabilize the pack."
"A Luna chosen by whom?"
Silence.
Selene stepped closer, lowering her voice into something meant to sound private while still carrying to every ear. "Kael, I know grief made you cautious. I never pushed you. I waited because I believed in the pack, and in you."
Three years ago, those words might have sounded patient.
Today, Kael heard calculation.
He thought of Elara standing in the apothecary with blood on her hands, saying, You do not get to decide what I am called.
He thought of Rowan's small body between them and the window, the child's mark glowing silver beneath his shirt.
His son.
The thought still landed with savage wonder.
Kael turned to the council. "The Luna ceremony is canceled."
Voices erupted.
Selene went very still.
Elder Voss struck his cane against the floor. "You cannot cancel sacred procedure without cause."
"I have cause."
"Then present it."
Rhys shifted behind him. Kael did not look back. They had agreed before entering the chamber: no mention of Rowan. Not yet. Not until they knew how far Selene's reach extended.
"I was poisoned with a weapon carrying Ashford metalwork," Kael said.
Selene gasped softly. It was a beautiful sound. Almost convincing.
Beta Ashford slammed his fist on the table. "That is an accusation."
"It is a fact."
"Weapons are stolen in war."
"So are seals."
At that, Selene's face lost a shade of color.
Kael saw it.
So did Rhys.
Elder Voss frowned. "What seal?"
Kael took a folded parchment from inside his coat and placed it on the table. It was not the original letter accusing Elara's mother of betrayal. That remained locked away. This was a copy, but the mark at the bottom was clear: a crescent hawk pressed into wax.
Ashford's private seal.
"This letter was used years ago to prove Mira Moon betrayed Blackthorne borders," Kael said. "It helped justify my rejection of Elara Moon."
Selene's lashes lowered. "Why speak of that girl now?"
That girl.
Kael's wolf rose so violently his vision silvered at the edges.
"Careful," he said.
The room chilled.
Selene lowered her head. "Forgive me. I meant no disrespect to the dead."
"Elara Moon is not dead."
Now the silence was complete.
Kael watched shock move around the table. Some faces showed surprise. Some showed discomfort. One, Elder Voss, showed fear.
Interesting.
Selene recovered fastest. "Alive? That is... wonderful news."
"Is it?"
Her eyes shone as if tears were seconds away. "Kael, surely you cannot think I had anything to do with her disappearance."
"I think many things now."
Beta Ashford rose. "You insult my daughter in front of council after she gave you three years of loyalty."
"Loyalty does not fear investigation."
"Nor does grief deserve suspicion."
Kael's hand came down on the table. Not hard. Hard enough.
"My sister deserves truth."
No one spoke after that.
Lyra's name still had power in this room. His younger sister had been eighteen when rogues dragged her body to the northern stones. She had smelled of silver, river mud, and terror. Kael had built three years of vengeance on the evidence placed in his hands.
If that evidence was false, then his grief had been made into a weapon.
And he had aimed it at Elara.
"The Luna ceremony is suspended," he said. "All Ashford weapons records will be surrendered by dawn. All council correspondence from the month of Lyra's death will be reviewed. Anyone who refuses will be treated as hostile to the Alpha seat."
Elder Voss's mouth thinned. "You risk civil fracture."
"No," Kael said. "I am finding where it began."
He turned to leave.
Selene caught his sleeve.
The room inhaled.
No one touched an Alpha without permission.
Kael looked down at her hand.
Slowly, she released him.
"You are making a mistake," she whispered.
For the first time, Kael saw the woman beneath the white dress. Not the grieving ally. Not the patient bride. Something colder. Hungrier.
"I made my mistake three years ago," he said. "I am done defending it."
He left before the council could answer.
Outside the chamber, Rhys fell into step beside him. "That was subtle."
"I was poisoned yesterday."
"Yes, Alpha. Very restrained, considering."
Kael almost smiled. Then pain lanced through his ribs and stole the impulse.
"Send trusted guards to the healer's cottage," he said. "No Ashford men. No council loyalists."
Rhys sobered. "You think Selene will move against them?"
Kael remembered the arrow in Grayhaven. Give us the child, and the Alpha lives.
"I think she already has."
At the cottage, Elara was teaching Rowan how to grind dried moonroot without crushing the bowl. The boy took the task with fierce seriousness, tongue caught between his teeth. Elara's hair was pinned messily at the back of her neck, and pale morning light traced the curve of her cheek.
For one suspended moment, Kael stood outside the window and saw the life he had not known existed.
Not soft. Not simple.
His.
No.
The correction came in Elara's voice.
Not his.
Theirs only if earned.
A twig snapped behind the cottage.
Kael turned.
Too late.
Smoke burst across the clearing. A silver net flashed through the air and wrapped around his wounded side, burning deep. He dropped to one knee with a snarl.
Inside the cottage, Rowan screamed.
Elara's voice followed, sharp with terror.
"Kael!"
Through the smoke, Selene Ashford stepped from the trees in her white dress, smiling as if the ceremony had already begun.
"You should have chosen me," she said.
- Writer
