The Rejected Luna's Revenge novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: Yield
The envoy read the terms aloud from the trestle table, and the whole bowl listened.
"Last-thread, to the yield or the death. The challenged may name a champion. She has not. The challenger named none. Both stand for themselves."
He looked up.
"Miss MacShane. You may decline."
"I won't," said Demelza.
She walked into the ring.
The grass was cool under her boots, and the moon had just cleared the eastern rim, full and white and enormous.
She felt it land on her.
Hoyt stood across from her, shivering in his plain shirt.
His face was the colour of tallow.
"You don't have to do this," he said, low, so that only she could hear. "I'll say it was a mistake. Take the Ridge, take the seat. Just say you yield, and I'll walk."
"You called this ring."
"I was angry."
"You were scared." She pulled off Rafe's coat and dropped it in the grass. "Shift, Hoyt."
He tried.
She watched him try.
His shoulders hunched and his spine bent, and something grey and patchy pushed out through his shirt and fell back again.
He tried a second time and got as far as half a muzzle.
The slope above them began to murmur.
On the third try, a wolf stood in the ring.
It was thin, with the fur coming out in handfuls, and it had a gold ring still wired to one foreleg.
It was nowhere near the size of the Alpha who had stood in the Hall a year ago.
Demelza undressed behind the stones with Nan holding up a blanket.
"You're sure," Nan said.
"I'm sure."
"Be quick. Don't play with it."
Keep reading free with an account. Start The Rejected Luna's Revenge from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 17 · All chapters · Chapter 19 →
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