The Luna He Failed to Protect novel · Chapter 29 of 32

Chapter 29: In the Open

Garth didn't shout.

He smiled.

The same small smile from his porch, the first day, when his sister's letter was still warm in his hand.

"Ravelston's girl," he called up the wash. "You came."

Sixty rogues woke up all at once.

I heard it happen, a ripple of heads coming up out of the ash, a growl going from heap to heap.

Behind me, my ten spread out across the wash without a word.

The way we'd learned.

Two at the edges, the cook at the center, the youngest between the twins.

I changed back to two legs.

I stood up in my skin in the noon sun at the top of the wash.

"Vardy," I said. "Luna of Greyhollow."

He laughed.

"My sister's chair."

"Mine."

He walked out in front of his tent, past the sleeping heaps, scratching his bare left hand.

The rogues watched him come.

They didn't love him.

I could smell that.

They were following him because he'd come over the ridge with maps and a garrison's worth of secrets.

Rogues follow whoever's strongest.

They'd stop following him the moment he wasn't.

"I know rogue law," I said, loud enough for every heap in the wash. "My father held this Line fourteen years. He wrote it down."

The black-and-tans had gone still.

"A band follows the wolf who can hold it," I said. "So hold it, Commander. Here. In the open. You and me."

Garth's smile stayed on his face.

His eyes changed.

"You'll die in this gorge," he said. "Like you were meant to two years ago."

"Then come do it yourself," I said. "You've never done anything yourself."

Up on the ridge, against the sky, I could see them.

Twenty Greyhollow wolves on two legs, in a line on the bare rock.

Cale in the middle.

He was standing exactly where Garth had stood.

He didn't move.

Garth changed.

He'd always been big.

His wolf was bigger, dirty yellow and heavy in the shoulder, with the white crescent showing through the fur of his left foreleg.

I changed too.

I don't remember deciding.

My wolf came up out of me like she'd been waiting two years at a door.

He came at me fast for a big wolf.

He'd always been fast for a big man.

He hit me in the chest and I went over in the ash.

His jaws went for my face, for the old scar.

I wasn't there.

← Chapter 28 · All chapters · Chapter 30 →

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