Six Years As His Luna. He Only Wanted My Sister novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Chain

In front of the elders Mara takes the Luna's chain off Odette's neck and says she is Luna until the Moon Court; her parents admit the mill deal, and Elias says he takes her orders until the moon.

Odette let go of me and smiled.

"I wanted to tell you myself, Mara. Bastian only decided last week. I swear."

"The tag on your dress says two months," I said.

She glanced down at it and laughed softly.

"That is just the seamstress. She starts early on everything."

My mother put a hand on my arm.

"Don't make this ugly, Mara. Your sister is doing you a kindness. Nobody wants a Luna who has given the pack nothing in six years."

I looked at my mother.

She did not look back.

Bastian's mother took the bell from his desk and rang it twice.

"The elders are already in the hall," she said. "The pack should hear this tonight, from the Alpha, with the new Luna beside him."

I followed them out anyway.

The great hall was lit and full. The eight elders sat at the long table, and half the pack stood along the walls with their dinner plates still in their hands.

Everyone had been called, and nobody had told me.

My father stood by the hearth. He gave me one short nod and looked away.

Bastian's mother walked to the center of the floor and held up a small velvet box.

I knew that box.

It lived in the locked drawer of my dressing table. Someone had gone into my room and taken it.

"The Holt Luna's chain," she announced. "Worn by my mother-in-law, and her mother before her."

She lifted out the silver chain and fastened it around Odette's throat.

The hall murmured.

Odette touched it with both hands and let a tear fall.

"I will try to deserve it," she whispered.

Bastian stood beside her. He did not look at me once.

I crossed the floor.

I heard the boots on the stone behind me, and I heard the whispers, but I did not slow down.

I stopped in front of my sister and reached up.

"Mara," she said, very gently. "Please, don't."

I undid the clasp.

The chain slid into my palm, warm from her skin.

"What are you doing?" Bastian's mother hissed.

"Taking back what is mine," I said, loud enough for the back wall. "The Moon Court has not pronounced anything."

I turned to face the elders.

"A bond is dissolved when the King's court says so, on the full moon, and not before. Until then the Luna of Holt is me. Is that the law, or isn't it?"

The oldest elder cleared his throat.

He looked at Bastian, then at the floor.

"That is the law," he said.

Nobody in the hall spoke.

I fastened the chain around my own neck, and I did it slowly, so everyone could watch.

Odette's face changed for half a second.

Then it was soft again.

"Of course," she said. "Mara is right. We should respect the law."

Bastian finally looked at me.

"It is a formality," he said, low and even. "The scroll is signed. Do not turn this into a scene."

"You put my sister in my chain in front of the elders," I said. "You made the scene."

My father stepped forward.

"That is enough, Mara."

"No, Father. Tell them why."

He went red.

"Tell them why the Alpha spoke to you before he spoke to me. Tell them how you are paid."

He said nothing.

My mother answered for him, and she did not even lower her voice.

"The mill is failing, Mara. The Holt grain contract is the only thing keeping it open. Bastian promised it to the Hallowell family once Odette is Luna."

A sound moved along the walls of the hall.

The pack had worked beside our mill for years. Half of them had cousins there.

I laughed, and it hurt.

"So you sold me," I said. "Both of you. For grain."

"We chose what was best for the family," my mother said.

"Then I am not part of it anymore," I said. "Write that down for the next time you say my name."

Nobody moved.

I looked at Bastian one last time.

He was watching me calmly, already working out how to close the matter by morning.

That was all I was to him now. A problem with an answer.

"Elias," he said, without raising his voice.

The big doors opened behind me.

"Escort the Luna to her rooms for the night, and then to your quarters in the barracks. She will want the Beta's protection until the moon."

I turned.

Elias Riordan stood in the doorway with rain still on his coat and blood drying on his right hand.

He did not look at Bastian.

He looked at me.

"Alpha," he said quietly. "With respect, the Luna of Holt is not mine to move."

"Elias."

"She is the Luna until the Court says otherwise. I will guard her, and I will not move her." He took a breath. "Until the moon, I take her orders."

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