The Rejected Luna

Chapter 3

Sloan

They did it on a Tuesday, a Tuesday. Like of all days to pick, they picked a Tuesday. I'd spent four days preparing, which mostly looked like sitting in my room at different times of day and just convincing myself over and over again until my body believed it, that this was actually going to happen. Because you can know something completely and logically and your heart will still refuse to accept it, I had to work on getting my heart to catch up.

The grand hall where major decisions about the kingdom were made looked the same as it always did. The same hall that witnessed the crowning of her being Luna will also witness the position being taken from her. Pale morning light that penetrates the hall through the high windows, cold smell of the heavy rain that fell last night and the burning candles. The council was in a semicircular sitting arrangement, with their faces being as expressionless as always. Lyra Vesper was standing to the left of Kael's chair, She was beautiful, I'll give her that golden hair, amber eyes, the kind of easy confidence that comes from a wolf that's always answered when she is called. Many said she was twenty-four years old. She carried herself like she already knew how this ended, with her winning a place beside the alpha and taking what was never mine in the first place.

She looked at me once, I looked back. I didn't feel what I expected to feel, there wasn’t any rage, no sadness or anger, just numbness. Looking at Lyra, she wasn't a villain or so I thought, she was just a person on the other side of the same situation. That made hating her even harder. So I looked at Kael, he was staring at a point just above my head, I knew that spot. I knew it because I'd watched him look at that point whenever he had to make a difficult decision in council meetings. He'd never looked at me before, it was always the point above me.

Elder Crassus started speaking.I let his words come without fully listening or understanding them. That was the only way I could try to distract myself from the inevitable, as he speaks in the Moonbound formal language, speaking about the imperial tradition that was designed to way anyone who beheld the power. And at this point the power of the last say was handed to the Alpha, my mate. With an expression pleading for forgiveness from me, He says his last and final words to me.

By the power placed on me, In order to maintain order and keep to the law of the land, Sloan Vale you have been Exiled from this territory and removed from the Luna position. I didn't make a sound neith did I show them that what they did and what they have done hurt me, that was the plan. I knew it would hurt but I promised myself to be strong enough for them to not see how much it hurts. I looked at Kael one more time, he was looking at the floor.

I turned and walked out. Doran was already in the corridor.

He had a bundle of money, folded papers and a large map. Before I could say anything, Doran spoke " Follow the Eastern road to the forest edge. It is Twelve miles away from the trading post, you would meet a woman named Mara, she would contact me when you get to her and we would get you to somewhere better. "Doran you can't"

"For Forty years I've worked here,no one has treated as good as you did, no one has helped me as you did. You don’t deserve any of this Sloan" he said, with a horsey voice, it sounded different from his normal stoic voice. "So let me do this one for you, as a way to say thank you for everything ." He pressed the bundle, the document and the map little more firmly into my hands. “ Now go” I nodded. My throat had gone completely unreliable in the last few minutes and I didn't trust what would happen if I tried to speak. So I just nodded as I walked away. I didn't look back at the palace.

The forest out here was nothing like inside the territory. No paths, or if there were paths it would only last for a while before it disappears. Everything was wet, the rain had started overnight and hadn't properly stopped, that kind of persistent drizzle that isn't dramatic enough to be worth sheltering from but soaks through everything anyway. The night sky made the forest glow, as the forest breeze blew her hair away. I felt weaker than I normally would.

The exile ritual at the border had cost more than I expected, there was a pain in my chest that wasn't going away, low and constant, right where the bond had been. And an exhaustion that was felt underneath that sleep could not take it away instantly, I hadn't eaten since before the ceremony. My skin was dull , it looked like it was fading, my feet were bruised and scarred.

I sat down against a tree root and told myself that I would only rest for a minute.I thought about the moon charts that I dismissed, I thought about the mark on my collarbone and the one time when I was sixteen and scared that it had glowed just briefly, just that one time and how I hadn't told anyone . I thought about Kael looking at the point and then floor. I thought about Doran's face.