When the Luna Walked Away novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Mating

At moonrise the great hall at Cold River was so full the Alphas stood on the window ledges.

The doors were open to the yard so the warriors outside could see.

My fourteen omegas sat in the front row in their church coats, and the old cook had Robin on her lap in a white knitted suit she'd made in four nights.

The twins were asleep in a basket at her feet.

I wore my mother's ring, and a plain dress the color of cream, with no collar at all.

Both marks showed.

His on my shoulder.

Mine on his neck.

In the Cold River way, there's no priest and no cup.

The King and his mate stand on the step before the North, and he asks the North if anyone objects, and then he says what she is.

Thane stood with me in front of the two chairs.

His ribs were still bandaged under his shirt.

He'd refused to sit down all day.

"Does any wolf in the North object?" he said.

The hall was silent.

Then the river Alpha called out from the window ledge.

"Only that she's too good for you, King."

The hall cracked up laughing.

Even Thane's mouth moved.

"Noted," he said.

Then he turned to me.

He didn't say anything for a moment.

He just looked.

Then he went down on one knee on the stone step in front of me.

The laughing stopped.

I heard somebody gasp.

The King of the North doesn't kneel.

He'd never knelt in his life.

Every wolf in that hall had knelt to him since they could walk.

He knelt in front of an omega in a cream dress with her braid down her back, with the whole North watching.

"Ilsa Hollen," he said. "You're my mate, and my queen, and my partner in all of it. Anyone who kneels to me kneels to you. Anyone who touches you answers to me."

His voice was rough.

"And the boy," he said.

He turned his head and looked at Robin on the cook's lap.

"He keeps his mother's name. He's my son under it. Anyone in the North who says otherwise can say it to my face."

The cook pressed her apron to her mouth.

So did both laundry girls.

I couldn't speak.

I put my hand on his face, on the dark stubble along his jaw, and he turned his mouth into my palm.

"Get up," I whispered. "Your ribs."

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