No Longer Luna novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: His Price

Rhys's price is three weeks as his claimed Luna until the Harvest Moon challenge; Skye says no, finds Cinderfell wolves already across the Fernbank river, and calls him: Terms. Mine.

"Say it," I said.

Rhys started the truck and pulled out of the loading dock before he answered.

"In three weeks it's the Harvest Moon. My father hears challenges for the heir's seat that night, in front of both packs."

"You want to challenge your brother."

"I want to beat him. But Boyd only hears a challenge from a son with a mate at his side."

I understood it before he finished.

"You want me to be your mate."

"For three weeks. In public. You'd stand beside me as my claimed Luna and walk through the gate that night."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because the border guard answers to the harbor warden, and I am the harbor warden." He kept his eyes on the road. "While you're my Luna, the guard stays on your river. Monday comes and goes, and nothing crosses it."

The wipers ticked.

"You'd use me," I said.

"I'd use you. And your pack would use me. That's how it works until one of us can do better."

I stared at the water running down the windshield.

An hour ago, I had a mate. Now I had a man who said "use" like it was a plain word for a plain bargain.

It was almost restful.

"No," I said.

"All right."

"That's it? All right?"

"You said no." He shrugged one shoulder. "Where am I taking you?"

"Fernbank. It's forty minutes inland."

He didn't argue, and he didn't ask twice.

We didn't talk after that.

The rain stopped at the river road. We turned onto the bridge, and the first thing I saw was my pack's old ambulance parked sideways across the lane.

A kid was lying on the back step.

He was a Fernbank boy of sixteen, and his left arm was bleeding through a towel somebody had wrapped around it.

I was out of the truck before it stopped, holding up my skirt.

"What happened?"

A woman I'd known all my life pushed the hair off her face. "Cinderfell wolves. Four of them, in the shallows. They said the river was theirs from today."

"Today?"

"They said the alliance died when you walked out of the claiming."

It had been less than two hours.

Somebody had already told them.

I unwrapped the towel with my hands that knew exactly what to do, even in a gown.

The bite was deep, clean, and not shifted. The boy was still pale, but his wolf was holding.

"Get my bag," I said. "The green one in the clinic."

Rhys had come up behind me. He crouched on the boy's other side without a word and held the arm still.

His hands were enormous and gentle.

"Good," I told the boy. "Keep still. You'll have a scar to brag about."

The boy tried to grin.

Rhys looked up at me over the boy's chest.

I didn't say anything, and neither did he.

It was past dark when I got to the house.

My father sat at the kitchen table with his tie loosened, looking ten years older than he had that morning.

My mother put a plate in front of me and sat down across.

"Did Colton speak to you?" my father asked.

"He said the guard was for his Luna and nobody else."

"I know. Boyd's secretary called an hour ago."

He turned a glass of water in his hands.

"They'll come across the bridge Monday, Skye. I can't hold the river with eleven wolves."

"I know, Dad."

"I'm not asking you to go back."

My mother's eyes were red, and she said nothing.

They weren't asking, and that was the worst part.

I went upstairs, took off the gown, and hung it carefully on the closet door.

Then I sat on my childhood bed in a T-shirt, and the boy's blood was still under my fingernails.

Three weeks.

Three weeks of being used by a man who had said so to my face, after two years of being used by one who never had.

I took out my phone.

At my front door, Rhys had put a card in my hand with a number written on it.

I had saved the number without noticing.

I typed: I'll do it.

I deleted it.

I typed again and sent it.

Terms. Mine.

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