My Gown Had No Gems, So I Walked Out of My Own Bonding Ceremony novel · Chapter 7 of 32

Chapter 7: Winter Moon

The Moon Council met on Winter Moon in a hall built on the island in the middle of the lake.

You reached it by an ice causeway marked with lanterns, and the whole of both packs had walked out onto it that afternoon.

I sat on a bench at the front, between Jasper and the beta.

My father and my sisters sat across the aisle.

Three elders sat at the long table under the carved moon, an old woman in the middle and a man on each side.

"Alpha Winslow," said the old woman. "Your claim first."

Gordon stood, heavy and grave, with his hands folded.

"My youngest daughter left her own bonding circle four days ago," he said. "The next morning she was in Ironwood's hall, under Ironwood's roof, and a man twice her size stood between her and her family."

"That's not what happened," I said.

"You'll speak when you're asked, Miss Winslow," said the old woman, and not unkindly.

"She is young, and she is grieving," my father went on, and my mother's mouth pressed into a line. "Whatever she says, she says under pressure. I only ask that she come home."

Margot stood up from the bench beside him.

"May I, Elder?"

"Briefly."

"I packed her bag myself," Margot said. "She was upset, and she was cold, and I gave her my coat." She turned and looked at me with wet eyes. "Clara, nobody wants to hurt you. Come home."

It was so gentle and so sad that half the hall nodded.

I felt my own throat tighten.

It was hard to remember that she had stood at his shoulder with the gems on her skirt and said nothing.

"Alpha Coyle," said the old woman. "Your claim."

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