Luna Lola: The Moon Wolf novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Dawn Law

The council demands a packless wolf's death at dawn, and Caelen claims her under his roof. The Crown's seer says she was never wolfless, and Ilsa arrives and announces her midwinter wedding to Caelen.

At dawn I walked into the council hall in a borrowed sweater, with Harlan on one side of me and Caelen on the other.

The hall was stone, long and cold, with a ring of high-backed chairs at one end.

Eleven old men and women sat in them.

Behind them the windows were turning grey.

"Name," said the woman in the center chair.

"Wynne Tarrant."

"Pack."

I opened my mouth, and nothing came.

"She was Ashfall until last night," Caelen said. "Their Alpha rejected her on the Stone, in front of two hundred witnesses."

"Then she is packless," the woman said, "and packless wolves on Crown ground are rogues. We have the law, Caelen. It is older than your father."

"I know how old it is."

"She crossed our line in a half shift with the moon up. If a rogue goes mad on our land, our people die."

"I wasn't mad," I said.

Eleven faces turned toward me.

I had never been looked at by so many people at once who weren't about to say sorry.

My voice shook, so I made it louder.

"I'm not a rogue. I'm not going to hurt anyone. I was walking to the road, and then my body did something I didn't plan."

"Your body shifted," a man said, "whole, with no teacher and no warning. Do you know how rare that is?"

"I was told it never would."

"By whom?"

"By everyone."

The woman in the center chair leaned back.

"Then she's either lying or very badly informed," she said. "Either way she is a stranger with a wolf nobody has seen, and the law gives her till sunrise."

The window behind her had gone gold at the edges.

Harlan shifted his weight beside me, and I understood he was ready to fight eleven elders if he had to.

Caelen stepped forward, into the ring.

"Then I'm claiming her."

The hall went still.

"You can't," the woman said. "A claim means a mate or a pack. You are promised to Cold Harbor's daughter, and you have no pack but the Crown."

"The Crown is my pack."

"Then you are saying you will answer for every act she commits."

"Under this roof, in my name, until the winter solstice." He did not look at me. "If she harms anyone in this valley, you can take my seat on this council and my place after my father."

A man behind her swore under his breath.

"Your father is dying, boy."

"I know where my father is."

"You would risk the throne for a rejected omega."

"I'd risk it for a guest," Caelen said. "Which is what she is."

He put weight on the word guest.

I understood he was telling me where the line was, and that he was saying it out loud so I would hear it too.

The old woman looked at him a long time.

Then she looked at the window, where the sun's first edge had crept onto the floor.

"Until the solstice," she said, with her mouth tight. "Not a day more. And Maud sees her before noon."

That was how I met Maud Stanbury.

She came in through a side door when the hall had emptied, a small wiry woman with white hair cut short and a grey cardigan with deep sleeves.

She looked at me for a full minute without a word.

Then she took my chin in her dry fingers and turned my face to the light.

"Look at me, girl."

I looked.

She had very sharp blue eyes.

"Who told you that you were wolfless?"

"My mother, when I was six. Then the pack healer. Then Dane."

"Your mother was a wolf?"

"She was an omega in Ashfall. She died when I was seventeen."

"And she told you at six that you had no wolf." Maud let go of my chin and dug into her cardigan sleeve, and out came a biscuit. "Eat."

I ate it.

"A wolfless girl doesn't grow a coat the color of fresh milk," she said. "A wolfless girl doesn't make three armed men step back from her with one snarl. I was in the trees, child. I watched you."

"I don't understand."

"I know you don't." She said it gently. "Somebody has been very careful that you wouldn't."

Her hand moved to my left shoulder blade and stopped just short of the scar.

"Who did this?"

"I fell."

"You didn't," said Maud.

I was very tired of being told that.

She nodded to herself, once, and then the door at the end of the hall banged open.

A woman in a camel coat came running down the stone floor with her arms out.

"Wynne! Oh, thank the Goddess!"

It was Ilsa.

She threw her arms around me and held on, and she smelled of rain and the lavender soap from the Ashfall kitchen.

"I drove all night," she said into my hair. "Highmoor was my next stop anyway, and when Dane told me what he'd done I couldn't breathe. I'm so glad you're safe. I'm so glad you're here."

I hugged her back, because my arms wanted to.

"Come," she said, drawing back and taking both my hands. "You must meet him properly. Caelen."

Caelen had come in behind her, and he was very still.

"Caelen and I will be married at midwinter," Ilsa told me, with her whole warm face lit up. "Isn't it perfect that you'll be here for it?"

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

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