The Rejected Luna's Revenge novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: What the Year Was For

Demelza read her mother's ledger by lantern light, wrapped in a blanket on the attic floor.

Rafe had pulled his shirt back on.

Nan sat very straight on the edge of the mattress.

It was a plain green cloth book, with a pressed gentian between the last two pages.

Most of it was recipes and seed lists and the names of children Nan had delivered.

The last page was different.

The handwriting changed there, smaller and harder.

Demelza read it aloud, because her throat would not let her read it any other way.

"If you are reading this, Nan, then I'm gone, and Demelza is a young woman who has not yet found her wolf."

Nan made a sound in her throat.

"I never told her what she is. A Silver wolf's strength is the strongest in the hills, and it is a gift to the one she loves. But it flows to her bonded mate whether she wants it to or not."

Demelza stopped.

Rafe, beside her, said nothing, but his hand came to rest on her ankle.

She kept reading.

"With a true mate, it runs both ways. Each makes the other stronger, like two hands holding a rope. With a false mate, it only runs one way, and the Silver goes cold and tired and quiet while the man at the other end of the rope grows."

The lantern flame shook.

"The Brocklehurst Alpha has asked me twice to promise Demelza to his son. The boy was born wolf-weak, and his father knows it. I have refused. If he asks again after I am gone, do not let him have her."

"My parents," Demelza whispered. "Six months after that."

"Demelza," Nan said.

"They died on a road. A dry road. You told me it was a deer."

"Honey, I don't know that it was anything else."

← Chapter 11 · All chapters · Chapter 13 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend