They All Chose Her, Then Found Out I Owned the Company Their Pack Needed novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Founders' Night
On a live stream the pack names Brynn Luna and calls Linnet wolfless; she returns the pin, walks out and cancels the summit booking, and Ward reads the notice.
Our pack streamed its yearly dinner live, so four hundred wolves across three packs watched me get thrown out.
I was standing at table one with a stack of seating cards in my hand.
I had spent the whole afternoon setting that table.
Rafe had asked me to, because he wanted his own mate's hands on the place cards.
That was what he had called me for two years, in private.
In public I was my brother's sister, the one who helped with flowers.
"You're shaking," Brynn said behind me.
She had come over from the dressing room with a pin between her teeth, and she fixed the clasp at the back of my dress.
She was the council elder's daughter, and she had been kind to me since the day I first walked into the lodge.
"Whatever the council says tonight, I'll look after you," she said. "I promise."
Her eyes dropped to the little silver locket at my throat.
"That's old," she said. "Is it a family piece?"
"My grandmother's," I said. "It's always warm, even in winter. I think it's the metal."
She smiled and squeezed my arm and went to take her seat beside the podium.
I thought it was a nice thing to say.
At eight o'clock her father, Ward Standish, stepped up to the microphone, and the hall went quiet.
Ward was the senior elder of the Ridgeline pack.
"Every alpha of Ridgeline has stood here on Founders' Night and named his Luna," he said. "Tonight the council has voted."
I looked at Rafe.
He was at the front table in his dark suit, with the pack's silver pin on his lapel.
He was looking at his hands.
"Rafe Cormack, will you name the council's choice?" Ward asked.
Rafe stood up.
Two years of sharing a bed and he could not look at me.
"The council has chosen Brynn Standish," he said. "I stand with that choice."
The hall clapped.
Four hundred phones went up at once.
Brynn walked to the podium with her hand over her mouth, and Rafe took her other hand.
Nobody turned around to look at table one.
I put the seating cards down on the tablecloth, one at a time, in a neat stack.
Rafe's beta, who stood nearest me, leaned in and spoke softly.
"Don't make a scene, Linnet. Rafe will see you're looked after."
"Looked after how?" I said.
"A flat in town. A small allowance."
He said it kindly, and that made it worse.
Ward heard us and raised his voice for the microphone.
"A Luna has to run the moon with her pack," he said. "She cannot be a girl who has never shifted once in her life."
Some people laughed.
Someone near the back said "wolfless" loud enough to carry.
Rafe had told me that word was cruel.
He stood at the podium holding another woman's hand and let them say it.
I waited for him to look at me, just once.
He didn't.
So I unpinned the silver ridge from my collar, the pin he had given me on our first anniversary.
I walked up the middle aisle with every phone following me.
I laid the pin on the edge of the podium, in front of Rafe's folded hands.
"You said you'd stand with the choice," I said. "Stand with it."
Rafe finally looked up.
"Linnet, wait. It's politics. Let me explain tonight."
"You've had two years to explain."
I turned and walked out through the double doors.
The cold in the car park was clean and sharp, and I was glad of it.
My hands were steady, which surprised me.
I sat in my car and opened my laptop on the steering wheel.
Two days ago Rafe had asked me for one favor.
He had said the Blood Moon Gathering, the summit that would end the boundary war with Northfang, had to be held at MOONHOUSE.
It was the only resort in the country that would host three packs on neutral ground, with shift suites and moon-run grounds.
"Your brother knows people there," he had said. "Ask them. The pack is begging."
I had said I would ask.
I had not told him that my brother Rodrick was only the face of MOONHOUSE.
I had not told him that I had founded it three years ago, alone, and that my name was the only one on the deed.
The booking page opened with my login.
Ridgeline Pack, Blood Moon Gathering, three nights, deposit paid.
Founder's approval: pending.
I clicked Terminate, and typed the reason in plain words.
Owner's decision.
Through the lodge windows I could see the hall, still lit up and full of phones.
Ward Standish's own phone buzzed in his hand.
He read it.
Then he turned around, grey in the face, and looked straight at the doors I had left through.
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