Luna Lola: The Moon Wolf novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Treaty

Harlan was waiting outside the bedroom door at dawn with a tray and a very careful face.

"Don't say a word," I said.

"I wasn't going to." He held out the tray. "Eat."

"Ashfall's Alpha collapsed on the road home last night, and his wolves carried him in."

"Somebody on the border says he hasn't stood since."

I put the toast down.

"Collapsed how?"

"Nobody knows. They say he screamed once, around midnight, and then he went down."

I thought of the rope that had snapped in my chest.

Caelen came up behind me and put one hand on the small of my back.

It was a plain, warm weight, and I leaned into it.

"There's something else," Harlan said. "Cold Harbor's Alpha has driven up from the coast, and he's in the great hall."

"Ilsa's father," Caelen said.

"He brought forty wolves."

Caelen closed his eyes briefly.

"Of course he did."

I followed them down.

Ilsa's father stood in the middle of the hall with his coat on.

He was a heavy grey-haired man with Ilsa's hazel eyes and none of her warmth.

He didn't look at me.

"I'll say it once, Caelen," he said. "My daughter was promised to you at nineteen."

"Seven years," Caelen said.

"The west has stood behind the Crown for seven years because of that promise. Six packs. A third of your fighting wolves."

"I know what the west gave."

"Then you know what it'll take away." The old Alpha's voice stayed level.

"The Moon Wolf is a story for the benches. A treaty has signatures."

"You marry my daughter by the solstice, or Cold Harbor walks out of the Crown, and the other western packs walk with us."

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