The Alpha Signed Away His Pregnant Luna novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Fine With It

At the pack lunch Gideon names Delaney to run the Luna's duties. Maeve hands over the ledger with a smile, and Gideon asks why he can't feel her.

I took the fresh thermos from her hands and thanked her.

"This morning's is in the sink at home," I said. "I'll wash it and bring it back."

Delaney's eyes dropped to my bag, then lifted again.

"The ribbon was my mother's. I'd hate to lose it."

"You won't lose it."

She squeezed my arm, warm and fond, and walked me all the way to the pack hall.

She did not let go until we were inside.

The hall was full. It was the weekly pack lunch, and every wolf in Ironwood was at the long tables.

Gideon sat at the head of the room with a covered dish in front of him.

Delaney's dish. She had cooked it herself, and she set it down with a little flourish.

He gave her a look so warm that two of the older women glanced at me.

I sat in my usual chair, three seats down from him.

Not beside him. I had stopped sitting beside him weeks ago, and he hadn't noticed.

He stood and tapped his glass with a fork.

"Before we eat, a few words."

The room went quiet at once.

"This has been a hard year for the Luna," Gideon said. "She lost her grandmother. She hasn't been herself, and she's been working herself to the bone."

I kept my face still.

"So starting today, Maeve is going to rest."

Several people nodded. Someone near the back said, "About time."

"Delaney has offered to run the Luna's duties until she's well. The household, the pack calendar, the ledger."

He turned to her with a smile.

"Laney, you've earned it."

Delaney pressed a hand to her chest.

"Oh, Gideon, I couldn't. It's Maeve's place."

"You can," he said.

She looked down at her lap, blushing, and the whole room softened toward her.

I looked at the fern beside my chair.

I unscrewed the thermos under the table and tipped the tea into the pot while everyone clapped.

The fern didn't seem to mind. Not yet.

Gideon sat down and looked at me, waiting.

Waiting for me to object. Waiting for the scene he was used to avoiding.

I stood up instead.

I walked to the end of his table and set the household ledger down in front of Delaney.

It was a heavy green book, five years of my handwriting, every page of it mine.

"Everything's in order," I said, smiling. "The grocery accounts, the healer's stipend, the winter wood contracts. You'll find my notes in the margins."

Delaney stared at me.

She had been ready for tears. She had not been ready for a gift.

"Thank you, Luna," she managed. "I'll take such good care of it."

"I know you will."

I took the ring of house keys from my belt and put it on top of the book.

She picked it up and ran her thumb across the keys one by one.

"And the brass one?" she asked.

"Which brass one?"

"The little key to your grandmother's cottage. The one that hung inside the pantry door, on the left hook."

I had never told anyone where that key hung.

Neither had my grandmother. It had been on that hook for thirty years.

"It's with the rest," I said evenly.

It wasn't. It was in my coat pocket, where it had been since the funeral.

"Wonderful." Delaney smiled. "I like to keep everything tidy."

An older woman at the next table leaned over.

"She's very good, isn't she?" she whispered to me. "So thoughtful."

"Very," I said.

I thought nothing more of the key. I should have.

Lunch passed in a blur of praise.

Gideon ate three bites of Delaney's dish, put a hand to his stomach, and ate a fourth to be polite.

I watched him do it, and I felt nothing, which surprised me.

Five years of being the one who knew what he could eat, and I felt nothing at all.

When the room began to empty, I put on my coat and slipped out through the side door.

I'd made it as far as the gravel path when I heard his boots behind me.

"Maeve."

I stopped.

Gideon came around in front of me, close enough that I could smell the stew on his shirt.

He searched my face.

"You're fine with this?" he asked.

"I'm fine."

"You gave her the ledger. You gave her the keys. You didn't argue."

"You asked me to rest, Gideon. I'm resting."

"That isn't like you."

"It's exactly like me. You've never noticed what I'm like."

His brow creased, and he put a hand flat against his own chest.

"Then why can't I feel you?" he said.

The bond had been quiet for six weeks, and I had thought he didn't care.

He had needed six weeks, and a signed Release, to notice.

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