The Moon She Waited Under novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Chosen

Lucan said it back to me on his knees, with my hands on his face.

"Moon above the ridge, I stand in your ring, and I am not alone."

His voice cracked on the last word, and he went on.

"I stand with the one who waited."

"I stand with the one who came," I said.

The old thread caught.

It didn't snap into place the way it had the night the moon matched us, from outside, with a cold click.

It grew from inside me, from my ribs, warm and slow, and I felt it find him.

It went into him, and he drank it in.

His head fell back, and his mouth opened, and the gold rushed up into his eyes so fast it lit his whole face.

I felt his heartbeat inside my own chest.

I felt his wolf, and she was alive.

She was thin and starved and half mad with it.

She lunged up out of the dark in him, and the sound came out of his throat as a roar.

And my wolf met her.

She wasn't a lid this time.

She went to the other wolf, and they touched, brow to brow, and stayed.

Nothing pressed me down.

I was awake in every inch of myself, and so was he.

"Dessa," he said, wondering.

I kissed him.

He tasted of blood, and salt, and cold water from the cliff.

Somewhere far off, the pack let out a shout that rang off the ridge.

"Can you stand?" I said against his mouth.

"I can run."

I laughed.

I stepped back, and I let her come, and this time she came on my breath, with no fear and no pain.

White fur poured over my skin.

Beside me, Lucan dropped to four dark feet, enormous and shaggy and healthy, with the Alpha's gold in his eyes.

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