Luna Lola: The Moon Wolf novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Ring

The council ring was full.

Wolves had come in from the valley and the north road.

The benches around the ring were packed with seconds and elders from every pack in the Crown.

I stood in the middle in a borrowed grey dress, and I could feel every eye on my back.

Caelen stood at my left.

He hadn't touched me since the morning, and he stood close enough to.

Ilsa sat in the front row with her notebook on her knee.

She gave me a small encouraging smile, and I gave her half of one back.

In the center chair, the old woman rapped a wooden gavel.

"The council hears the matter of the Ashfall omega," she said.

"Her former Alpha has sent a petition for her return."

"The Crown's seer has asked for the floor."

"Granted," said a man on her right, sounding tired.

Maud came out of the shadows by the wall.

She walked into the ring with her cardigan sleeves pushed up, and she didn't look at the elders.

She looked at me.

"Wynne," she said. "I made you a promise. Nobody tells you what you are until you say you want to hear it."

I hadn't known she'd heard.

My mouth went dry.

"Do you want to hear it?"

The whole hall was waiting.

I thought about the Stone, and the hayloft, and a warm voice telling me what I was and wasn't.

"Yes," I said. "Tell me."

Maud turned to the circle and raised her voice.

It was a small voice, but it reached the back wall.

"Three years ago, on the night of a full moon, a white wolf was shot at the Black Fir bridge," she said.

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