Chapter 2 — The Room Between Us
1169 Words
LIORA
The Luna’s necklace was waiting on my pillow.
Selene had returned it sometime after the council dinner, leaving the silver chain carefully arranged against the dark blue coverlet.
No apology.
No message.
Only the symbol she had worn while sitting beside my mate.
I closed my fingers around the moonstone and heard furniture scraping across the corridor.
Selene’s scent had already filled the private wing.
Roses and vanilla drifted through the open doorway opposite my room. Two servants carried a cedar chest inside while Tessa, the head maid, directed another toward the wardrobe.
I stopped at the threshold.
“Not this room.”
The servants froze.
Tessa turned toward me. “My Luna.”
“Take the chest out.”
Her hands tightened around the household ledger she carried.
“Alpha Ronan selected this room himself.”
Something cold settled beneath my ribs.
“Did he?”
Tessa lowered her eyes.
I entered before she could answer.
Selene’s gowns already occupied half the wardrobe. Perfume bottles covered the dresser, and a collection of Milo’s carved animals lined the shelf beside the window.
The room had pale blue walls and moon-colored curtains.
I had chosen them after Ronan and I completed our mating ceremony.
Back then, I had imagined a cradle near the window. Shelves crowded with toys. Ronan standing in the doorway with our child sleeping against his chest.
I had come here alone more times than I could count, touching the empty walls and telling myself that someday they would hold a family.
Now another woman’s perfume covered everything.
“Remove her belongings,” I said.
The servants exchanged nervous glances.
“Leave them where they are.”
Ronan’s voice came from the corridor.
I turned slowly.
He had removed his formal council jacket, but the tension from dinner remained in the rigid line of his shoulders.
Tessa dismissed the servants with a small motion. They hurried from the room without looking at either of us.
Ronan waited until their footsteps faded.
“You cannot countermand every order I give.”
“Not every order.” I gestured toward the wardrobe. “Only the ones that erase me from my own home.”
His expression tightened.
“This room has the safest windows in the wing. Milo has been waking at night.”
“This was meant for our child.”
The words struck the room between us.
Ronan’s gaze shifted toward the pale curtains.
For one heartbeat, I saw recognition.
He remembered.
“You knew,” I said.
“We discussed it years ago.”
“We planned it.”
“We imagined it,” he corrected quietly.
My chest constricted.
He walked past me and rested one hand on the back of a chair.
“There is no child, Liora.”
He did not say it cruelly.
That made it worse.
“There could have been.”
His fingers curled around the carved wood.
“We have been mated for six years.”
“And you decided that meant we never would?”
“I decided an empty room could be used by someone who needs it now.”
An empty room.
As though the hope I had kept inside it had never existed.
“You could have asked me.”
“I knew what you would say.”
A bitter laugh escaped me. “Then you knew it would hurt.”
The floorboard outside creaked.
Selene stood in the doorway with Milo beside her. Her hand rested protectively on his shoulder.
“I didn’t know,” she said.
Her face had gone pale, but her voice remained soft and steady.
“I thought Ronan had chosen an ordinary guest room.”
I looked at her, then at him.
“No,” I said. “You didn’t know.”
Ronan’s jaw shifted.
“But he did.”
Selene glanced between us.
“I can move my things somewhere else.”
Milo looked up at her. “But this is my room.”
“It may not be, sweetheart.”
His small face fell.
Ronan stepped forward. “No one is moving.”
Selene touched his arm. “Ronan, if this room belonged to them—”
“It belongs to the household,” he said. “And I made the decision.”
The finality in his voice was not directed at Selene.
It was meant for me.
Milo stared at the wooden wolf in his hands. He was too young to understand titles, mating bonds, or the quiet destruction of a marriage.
He only knew that the adults around him were angry.
I crouched in front of him.
“You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Are you angry with Mommy?”
Selene inhaled sharply.
“This is not something you need to fix,” I told him.
He studied me with Eamon’s brown eyes, then held out the wooden wolf.
“You can have this one.”
I hesitated before accepting it.
“Why?”
“He protects people when they are alone.”
The answer struck deeper than he could have known.
“Thank you, Milo.”
A low growl rolled through the corridor.
Bran stood outside the room.
The enormous guard dog’s black fur had risen along his spine, but he was not watching Selene or Milo.
His amber eyes were fixed on me.
“Bran,” Ronan said. “Go downstairs.”
The dog did not move.
Ronan straightened. Alpha authority entered his voice, pressing against the room like an approaching storm.
“Go.”
Bran crossed the threshold.
Instead of obeying Ronan, he lowered himself at my feet and pressed his head against my leg.
The room became silent.
I rested my hand between his ears.
His growl stopped immediately.
Ronan stared at him.
“He may smell the blood from the infirmary.”
“I changed before dinner.”
Bran leaned harder against me.
Across the room, Selene watched us.
The softness disappeared from her expression.
For one unguarded moment, I saw recognition.
Then fear.
“Mama?” Milo tugged at her hand.
The fragile widow returned at once.
Ronan called one of the guards.
When the man reached for Bran’s collar, the dog bared his teeth.
“It’s all right,” I whispered.
Only then did Bran rise.
He allowed the guard to lead him away, but his gaze remained on me until he disappeared around the corner.
No one spoke.
A young maid hurried into the private wing carrying a silver gown over both arms.
“Lady Selene, the tailor is waiting to take your final measurements.”
She stopped when she saw me.
My attention moved to the ceremonial fabric.
Silver was not merely a color in Blackwood.
It belonged to the Luna.
“Why does Selene need that gown?”
The maid’s face drained of color.
Her gaze darted toward Ronan.
“Tell me,” I said.
She swallowed.
“Alpha Ronan ordered Lady Selene to represent the Luna at tomorrow’s Moon Renewal Ceremony.”
- Writer
