The Alpha Rejected His Scentless Mate at the Altar, So She Came Back as the Luna He Kneels For novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Kneel

Selene's wolf drives the whole hall to its knees, Tiernan last, and when he finally catches her scent he tells the Council she's still his.

Six Ashenveil warriors left the walls and came for me.

I knew two of them.

They were among the four who had walked me to the bridge.

One of them was grinning.

"Welcome home, Scentless," he said.

Theron didn't move.

The Ironclaw Beta started forward, and I put a hand on his arm.

"No," I said. "Mine."

The first warrior reached for my wrist.

I let my wolf come up.

I didn't shift.

I only stopped holding her back.

Silver light poured off my skin.

It filled the hall from wall to wall.

The warrior's hand stopped an inch from my wrist.

Then his knees hit the stone floor.

The other five went down behind him.

It didn't stop there.

It rolled out across the hall.

Wolves at the long tables slid off their benches onto their knees.

Glasses tipped over. Plates crashed.

Old men, warriors, mothers holding babies, all of them went down with their heads bowed.

I walked up the center aisle.

The same aisle they had marched me down five years ago.

My boots sounded loud in the silence.

The visiting packs at the Council table went down too.

Even the Council's Speaker, a tiny old woman in her eighties, lowered herself to her knees with a little sigh.

She didn't look frightened.

She looked interested.

I reached the high table.

Garrick was already on the floor.

He was red in the face and sweating, fighting it with everything he had.

It didn't matter.

His forehead touched the stone.

Imogen was down beside him.

Her pearls had swung forward and were clicking against the floor.

"Make it stop," she hissed. "Tiernan, make her stop!"

Tiernan was the only one still standing.

He gripped the edge of the table with both hands.

The wood cracked under his fingers.

His whole body was shaking.

His eyes were locked on mine, and they were full of fury.

"You," he said through his teeth, "will not do this in my hall."

"It was my hall too," I said. "Once."

I let a little more of her out.

The chandeliers above us swayed.

Tiernan's knees buckled.

He caught himself on one hand.

Then the other knee went, and the Alpha of Ashenveil was kneeling at my feet in front of his whole pack.

I looked down at him.

Five years ago he had stood over me in exactly this spot.

"Kneel for your Luna," I said.

He lifted his head.

"Not yours," I said. "Ironclaw's."

Behind me, Theron started to clap.

Slow, lazy claps, the only sound in the hall.

I didn't turn around.

I was watching Tiernan's face, because something was changing in it.

He had pulled in a breath to speak.

Then he stopped.

He breathed in again, deeper, his nostrils flaring.

It was the first time in his life he had ever smelled me.

The anger drained out of his face all at once.

What came in behind it was worse.

His eyes went from amber to bright gold.

The air around him changed.

His wolf was rising, and it wasn't fighting me anymore.

It was reaching for me.

"Snow," he said hoarsely. "Snow and cedar smoke."

"Get up," I said.

He didn't.

He stayed on his knees, staring at me.

"Selene," he said.

Every wolf in the hall could smell it now.

I heard someone gasp.

I heard someone whisper, "Mate."

It ran through the kneeling crowd.

Mate. Mate. Mate.

Imogen's head came up off the floor.

Her face had gone the color of old milk.

"No," she said. "No. She's nothing. She doesn't even have a scent."

"She does now," said the Council's Speaker mildly.

I pulled my wolf back in.

The silver light faded from the hall.

All around us, wolves started climbing to their feet, rubbing their knees, staring.

Tiernan didn't get up.

Something hurt in my chest, the exact place the cord had cut.

It had been quiet for five years.

Now it was pulling toward him.

I hated it.

"Whatever you think you're smelling," I said, "you threw it away on that stone."

"I rejected you on that stone."

"Yes. You did. In front of all of them."

"And you never accepted."

The hall went still again.

Theron stopped clapping.

Tiernan rose, slowly, until he was standing over me the way he used to.

The cut cord was gone from his wrist, but he rubbed the place where it had been.

"You said no," he said. "I heard you. Everyone in this hall heard you."

He turned to the Council table, to the Speaker, to all of them.

His voice carried to the back wall.

"You never said the words, Selene," he said. "You're still mine."

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