No Longer Luna novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Night Before

Rhys's POV

I sat at the end of the dock with my boots over the black water and waited for her truck.

It wasn't her truck. She'd borrowed her father's, which sounded like a threshing machine.

I heard it a mile off.

The harbor was quiet tonight.

The challenge was tomorrow, and the moon was nearly as full as it would get, hanging white over the bay.

I'd fought a hundred wolves in my life, and I had never had my hands shake before one.

They were shaking now.

She came down the dock in her father's jacket, with her hair loose and her shoes in her hand.

"You're out of breath," I said.

"The lights on this dock are terrible, and I'm a healer, not a runner."

"Sit."

She sat beside me, close enough that her shoulder pressed mine.

She smelled of the clinic, soap and iodine and wool.

"Colton came to Fernbank," she said. "He gave away his shares."

"I heard from Boyd."

"He says he'll lose to you on purpose."

"He'll try." I looked at the water. "He won't manage it. He's not a man who can throw a fight. He doesn't know how."

"That's one way to put it."

"It's a compliment."

She laughed, a short breath through her nose, and I felt it all the way down my arm.

Then she was quiet for a while.

"Rhys, the scars," she said. "You said later."

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