After the Tenth Bond Break: I Became the Luna of the Shadowfang Alpha novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: White Linen

June stood in the middle of the frozen ring with her flask held in both hands, and she still looked kind.

It was the saddest thing about her.

She could not stop.

"Healer Crewe," the old woman said. "The count on the front of that slate is in your hand?"

"Yes, my lady."

"And the plan on the back?"

June's thumb moved along the lid of the flask.

"A healer plans ahead," she said.

"The elder on my right has found something in our own records. Read it, please."

The elder unfolded a sheet of Council paper.

"A writ for the cutter was requested from this Council forty days before the Harvest Moon," he said. "It names Danica Fontana, and it asks that she be convicted of theft. It is written in the hand of Healer June Crewe, and it carries the seal of the Greywater Beta."

A boy near the front of the Greywater side lifted his phone to film it.

It was the same boy, I thought, the one from the ring.

Carson had sat up on the frost.

"Forty days," he said.

Nobody answered.

"Forty days before I even said the words. She asked for a cutter before the tenth rite."

"Carson," June said gently.

"You told me she was draining me."

"Carson, you were ill."

"You told me she was starving, and that only the mend would cure her. You told me to say the words one more time."

His voice cracked, and he turned on his knees toward her.

"Why?"

For the first time in her life, I think, June did not have the soft answer ready.

She stood in the white linen with her hands tight on the tin flask, and her mouth opened and shut.

Then it all fell out of her at once.

"Because I held you up," she said. "Every morning for eleven years. You couldn't dress for a pack meeting without me. You couldn't make a speech without me. And your father's pack was going to have a Luna who lifted baskets and sewed up dogs, and I was going to carry it all from behind a door."

← Chapter 19 · All chapters · Chapter 21 →

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