He Crowned Her Luna. The Moon Crowned Me. novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Congratulations
Heath tells the pack the Moon has shown him Imogen, and Verity takes the crown and the cuff off Margo. She says congratulations and walks out, and the moon lights a silver mark on her bare wrist.
Heath told four hundred wolves I was no longer their Luna, and then he thanked them for coming.
Some of them clapped.
It was the first night of the pack's autumn gathering, and the hall was full to the rafters.
Over the long tables hung the lamps, and my secretary had filled every one with white orchids.
I was sitting at the head table with my crown on, a plate of lamb in front of me that I hadn't touched.
That morning Heath had kissed my forehead over coffee.
"It's only the Gathering, Mags," he'd said. "Smile, eat, sit through the speeches. Mother wants the cuff polished, that's all. Trust me."
So I had trusted him.
Now he stood on the dais with his hand on my secretary's back and his other hand raised for quiet.
"Five years," Heath said. "Five years, and the Moon has given Ridgemoor no heir."
The hall had gone very still.
"At the last full moon, the Moon showed me my true mate. She is carrying my child."
He looked down at her.
She looked at her shoes.
That afternoon she had pinned my crown into my hair, humming, and told me not to eat anything with garlic before the speeches.
A month ago Imogen had asked me which wrist the cuff locked onto, and whether it hurt.
I had told her.
I hadn't wondered why she wanted to know.
"I thank Margo for her service," Heath said. "She has been a faithful Luna. Tonight, the title passes."
Verity came up the dais steps with her cane tapping.
She is my mother-in-law, and she had been Luna of Ridgemoor for thirty years before me.
She smiled at me and laid a hand on my shoulder, which she did to everyone.
"Stand up, dear," she said softly. "Let's do this nicely."
Heath unhooked the little brass key from his watch chain and handed it to her.
I had seen that key every day for five years.
I had never once held it.
Heath had fastened the silver cuff on my left wrist the night we were married, and I had worn it since.
I wore it in the shower and in my sleep.
I had stopped asking to take it off the first winter, when he said the pack needed to see the Luna's seal on me at all times.
"Your hand," Verity said.
I held out my left arm.
She turned the key, and the cuff came open with a small click.
It slid off my wrist and into her palm.
My skin underneath was white and ridged where the metal had sat.
The cool air of the hall touched it, and I felt it all the way up my arm.
Then she lifted the crown from my head.
Verity set it on Imogen's blonde pinned-up hair and stepped back to look.
"Beautiful," she said.
The wolves in the hall started clapping again.
Imogen lifted her chin toward them and smiled.
I walked across the dais until I stood in front of her.
"Congratulations," I said.
Imogen's smile stopped halfway.
"Margo," she whispered. "I wanted to tell you. I didn't know how."
"Keep your shoulders back," I said. "It's heavier than it looks."
Her eyes filled, and I believed the tears.
Heath stepped between us.
"We can talk about this after," he said, low enough that only we could hear. "Sit down, Margo. You'll say the release words at the Stone at dawn, the way the law says. Tonight, just sit."
Four hundred faces were turned toward me.
Some were pitying and some were pleased, and a lot of them were looking at their plates.
At the end of the third table, Maisy was already on her feet with her napkin in her fist.
I looked at the empty chair that had been mine for five years.
I did not sit in it.
So I stepped down off the dais and walked the length of the hall.
Nobody stopped me.
The doors at the far end stood open for the night air, and the moon was full in them.
I walked into its light, and my left wrist began to glow.
A thin silver crescent had come up under the skin, on the inside, right where the cuff had been.
I had never seen it in my life.
At my shoulder, at the very back of the hall, a man I did not know in a worn wool coat made a low sound in his chest.
It was a growl.
Every Ridgemoor wolf in the hall turned toward the doors, and nobody spoke.
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