Chapter 103

Olivia POV

Louisa stared at me, but while I tried to look back at the actual woman speaking to me, all I truly saw was my bully, the woman giggling in delight as she slept with my fiancé, and the person who had tried to take everything from me. I wanted to challenge her to combat, transform, and break her neck with my jaws, and the fact that she was in the same room as my unborn child set off every alarm bell in my head.

She didn’t know it, but I had taken the precaution of telling the Palace Guard to station officers outside the room, ready if she should make a single move toward me, and I offered no refreshments, nothing she could slip her poison into.

But I still needed to beware of the poison in her words. I did not believe for a moment she was now going to be my ally, and in that I felt safe enough. But now I didn’t understand why she was making up this story about saving her from rapists and being abducted. Nothing like that happened. Nothing at all.

The only thing I could connect it to was Denis’s bizarre ravings about “the beautiful Alpha female who had saved me with her silver light.” It was his claim for why he loved me and we were meant to be together, which I knew was completely false and had thought was probably some random delusion on his part: being fated to mate the Luna.

But now here my stepsister was telling the same story in details too similar to be a coincidence. I had never saved him or Louisa, so why were they teaming up to tell me I had?

Were they trying to build up the idea that I was some sort of miraculous Luna so they could then tear me down?

Was I supposed to think I was blessed by the Goddess and turn into a raving egomaniac?

What were they trying to sell me? And why would they think I’d buy it?

“I’m talking about when you were fourteen and we escaped from the keep grounds to go on that cursed ‘adventure’ together,” Louisa was saying now.

“Well,” I told her with a smile. “This has been very interesting, but I have a meeting to go to.” I stood.

I expected her to object to my dismissal and rant more about my “saving” her when we were young wolves, but instead she just bowed her head.

“Yes, I expected you not to believe my change of heart.” Her eyes met mine again. “But do you really not remember? You were so wounded when you came back. Did they do something to you so horrible that you had to put it out of your mind?”

“No one did anything horrible to me expect entwine my life with yours, your father’s, and Damian’s,” I said, purposefully letting my irritation show. “And now, I really do have to be going about my day.”

Again Louisa surprised me by nodding and standing up.

“I will be talking with people, trying to find someone to help you and Alpha Elroy defeat Denis,” she said.

“Well, that’s nice,” I said, completely done with this whole scene. I turned to Jordan, who was already on her feet and walking to the door.

Louisa followed without further comment, and in a moment, I was blessedly alone, or so I thought.

“What was that about?” I heard Elroy ask.

I turned to look at him and couldn’t help but be impressed all over again at his striking looks and aura of strength.

“Listening in?” I asked.

He bowed his head slightly. “By accident only, I assure you. I came to ask you if I could sit in on your meeting with the WIP this morning.”

I instinctively hid that I was pleased then made myself smile. This was a good thing. “Certainly.” I went to walk out the door, but he held up a gentle hand.

“First, please, why was Louisa talking about how you were kidnapped? You think she was lying?”

I waved the question away. “Louisa only lies when she’s talking. Obviously, she’s trying to con me into something, but I’m not going to waste my time listening to her.

I could tell Elroy wanted to keep talking about it, but instead he nodded, and we walked from the room together.

“I’m afraid you’re going to have to hear about another party,” I told him as we made our way to a small meeting room off the main council chamber.

Elroy frowned to himself. I stopped walking and turned to look at him.

He stopped with me, but said pleasantly enough, “We don’t want to be late.”

“One of the advantages of being Luna is that the meeting doesn’t start until I get there.” I put my hand on his arm. “Do you not like that I’m throwing another gathering while you’re preparing for battle against Denis?”

He took a moment to respond then said carefully, “Overseeing social occasions is a significant part of your duties. I understand that.”

“But?”

“But as Alpha, I need to point out that as Luna, you have been somewhat lacking in your duties to the Goddess.”

I was startled by the unexpected turn in the conversation, but he was being straightforward with me, and I needed to do the same. “I have been attending moon ceremonies, though only those required. I suppose I have been feeling intimidated when I think about doing more than asking for the Goddess to bless families and people’s new homes.”

“I know it’s not a lack of training.”

I laughed a little. “Hardly. I understand what a Luna does, and I’m more than willing to do it, but it is difficult to think about when there are so many secular issues going on.”

He regarded me seriously for a moment, then smiled. “I have a suggestion, if I may.”

“Oh? Please share.”

“Tonight is the night for the waning gibbous moon.”

I smiled back.

Later, after a day of meetings and reviewing reports, I met up with Elroy at the gates of the palace. Together, we welcomed the glowing moon, praised the Goddess, and then in front of a few dozen people transformed into our wolves and howled. Soon, we were surrounded by Pack.

Elroy was glorious in his fur so black it shone almost blue in the moonlight, and I stretched out in my silver wolf form to admire—perhaps not as briefly as I should have, I confess—my own shimmering fur.

Together, we took to the streets, running ahead of wolves from Moonshadow, Eclipse, and Ravencrest. I spotted some refuges from White Paw and two members of Blue Moon and made sure to yip at them in acknowledgement.

But soon, politics and diplomacy were forgotten as the night took over. The brilliant stars shone and spun above us, and many wolves we passed transformed to join us as we ran.

I felt connected to those stars, that moon, and the wolves behind me. I decided even as we ran that this would be a regular practice from now on. I was Luna, but so was my wolf, and the night city and sky seemed to join to welcome and accept us, and for the first time in a long while, I felt true hope.

Without taking my eyes from where I was going, I thought of the wolf at my side, a strong Alpha to my Luna, a wolf I could make my life with, a partner I could help my people with.

If only we could learn to trust each other.