The Luna He Lost to the Alpha King novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Terms

The Crown guest house sat in the pines above Highcrest Lodge, and it had eleven bedrooms, a fire already lit, and a housekeeper who asked Hazel what she liked for breakfast and then wrote it down.

Hazel asked for waffles and a lock on her door.

She got both, and she was asleep by nine, curled around the nightlight.

I stood in the doorway and listened to her breathe.

Then I went down to the kitchen, where the Alpha King was waiting at the table with a folded letter in front of him.

He stood when I came in.

"I said no strings," Torin said. "I meant it. You can sleep here for a month and I'll never ask you for anything."

"I don't take what I can't pay for."

"I thought you might say that."

He slid the letter across the wood.

It had the Redfern crest at the top, and it was written in Declan's square, careful hand.

I read the first line twice.

"An Alpha's claim," I said.

"Under pack law an Alpha may claim any pup of his pack until the age of twelve," Torin said. "He's filed it with the Crown. It came by courier an hour ago."

I put the paper down because my hands had started to shake.

"He's taking her."

"He's asking the Crown to give her to him. That's different. The Crown decides, at the Moot, in three weeks, in front of every Alpha in the north."

"And you'll decide."

"Yes."

"Against me?"

He took his time before he answered, and I respected that.

"Not if I can help it," he said. "But a Luna who has refused her bond and moved out is a weak case on paper. The elders will say a mother alone can't protect a girl with her lungs. I'd rather you weren't alone."

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