No Longer Luna novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Challenge

The circle was wide, packed earth ringed with salt, and I walked straight to its edge.

Four hundred wolves watched my skirt drag over the grass.

Rhys had gone entirely still.

I stopped at his side, one pace behind the line, and Boyd's eyes moved from the gown to my face.

"Who stands with the warden?" he asked.

"Skye Dunlap of Fernbank."

"By whose claim?"

"By nobody's," I said. "Nobody's marked me. I'm here because I chose to be."

A murmur ran around the ring.

Boyd's mouth did something that was almost a smile.

"The gate lit for you," he said.

"It did. I'd have come if it hadn't."

On the other side of the circle, Colton lifted his head and looked at me, and then he looked away.

"The challenge is heard," Boyd said. "Heir against warden. The circle ends when one of you yields or can't stand. No weapons. No outside hands."

He raised one arm.

"Begin."

They shifted at the same moment.

Colton's wolf was tall and pale and handsome, and his stitches pulled at his ribs.

Rhys's wolf was black and heavier, with silver eyes, and he didn't charge.

They circled.

Colton lunged first.

Rhys took the weight on his shoulder, turned with it, and threw him into the salt line.

Colton came up fast and clean, and I saw what he had meant in the clinic.

He wasn't throwing the fight.

He was fighting with everything he had left, and it was nowhere near enough.

They hit and parted and hit again.

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