Chapter 113

Ava

The bags slipped from Chris’s fingers as he saw the picture on the screen. I felt like my legs might give out underneath me; there, on the phone screen, was a photograph of us kissing in front of the hotel.

And then, just below it, was a picture from the press event looking awfully cozy.

“What the hell did you two do over there?” Leonard whispered, drawing us closer so as not to be overheard by the murmuring people walking by. “You guys have to be more careful, even on the human continent!”

Chris and I exchanged nervous glances, each of us too stunned to speak for several long moments. So the image of us kissing outside the hotel had leaked to Moonstone after all—less than twenty-four hours after Chris had assured me that it wouldn’t.

After several heartbeats, I finally whirled on Chris and resisted the urge to smack him in front of the entire village square.

“You promised!” I hissed through grit teeth. “You swore up and down that those pictures wouldn’t make it here!”

Chris’s eyes slid over to me. “I also promised that if it did, I would handle it.”

With a huff, I wrenched the phone out of Leonard’s grip and shoved it in Chris’s face. “How do you plan to handle this?” I half-whispered, half-growled. “There’s no explaining away a photo of the two of us kissing.”

“Trust me, Ava, I—”

“Trust you?” I scoffed, momentarily letting my pain and anxiety and rage take over. “Goddess, you’re acting so… so blase about it all! Thanks to your ego, we’re now in trouble. All because you’re too brazen to think you could be caught?”

“That’s not how I feel at all,” Chris said coldly. “I never thought it was impossible for us to get caught. I just know I can handle it.”

My frown turned into a grimace. “Well, I’d like to see that,” I said, maybe a bit too harshly. I looked away, clenching my jaw so tight I thought I might just break my teeth. “It’s a good thing we broke up already, huh?”

Leonard’s eyes widened into saucers at that. “You two…? Already?” he whispered.

I didn’t respond, and neither did Chris; we were too lost in our current staring contest, our jaws grinding as we waited for the other to make a move. Part of me wanted to hug him and tell him it was alright, but the other part… The other part wanted to call him a naive fool.

Chris remained silent for several long moments, his jaw set hard. I could practically hear the grinding of the gears turning in his head, a muscle just above his eye twitching relentlessly.

But then, suddenly, his shoulders softened. He smiled pleasantly and picked up our bags once again.

“I assume the Elders are waiting for us?” he asked calmly, turning to Leonard.

Leonard blinked in shock. “Yes, they’re in the council room,” he said, “but—”

“Very well. Let’s go to them now.”

…

The air in the council chamber was stifling. Now that the rain had passed and the sun had risen high into the sky, it was a particularly hot and humid day—a sensation that was made even more unbearable by the weight of the Elders’ gazes on us.

Chris and I stood at the far end of the table in silence, the room thick with tension. I wrung my hands nervously, too stunned to speak.

This was it, I supposed. Our little affair would finally be placed under the Elders’ scrutiny. It was a good thing that I had already ended things between us; they could be mad all they wanted to be, but it was over now. No one was in the way of Noah picking a suitable Luna. There would be no more scandals.

“Well?” Elder Fatima was the first to speak, throwing her hands up in exasperation. “What do you two have to say for yourselves?”

“This is a highly scandalous picture,” Bradley said as he raked his hands first through his hair and then smoothed them over the front of his slightly-crinkled robe. “Scandalous indeed.”

Meanwhile, Elder Elise simply pressed her lips into a thin line and watched silently. Claire leaned back in her chair, her arms folded across her chest as she shot me a disapproving glance. Only Elder Degas seemed unfazed as he toyed with the handle of his cane—although he, of course, already knew about us.

Chris opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Fatima abruptly rose from her chair and pointed a finger at me. “You should be ashamed of yourself, Ava,” she chided me.

“Elder Fatima,” Chris began, raising his hands in a placating gesture, “let me explain—”

But Fatima hardly noticed him; she was bristling with too much fury, her chin waggling as she continued to scold me like a petulant child. “This boy is ten years your junior, for starters!”

“Indeed,” Bradley chimed in with a huff. “I do apologize, Ava, but it’s most inappropriate. Surely you understand how this comes across in the eye of the public.”

“Yes, Elder Bradley,” I said, my fingers worrying each other in front of me. “I do understand.”

“Not to mention the fact that you have already been mated!” Claire blurted out. “Our law states—”

“Yes, Elder Claire,” I said, perhaps too quickly for my own good. “I am aware of our law—that an Alpha may not mate with a woman who has already been mated before.”

“Indeed.” Elder Elise’s gaze snapped to mine like the sharpest blade I had ever witnessed. “You are aware, then, that a Luna must be pure in the eyes of the Moon Goddess—unmated, unmarried…”

I swallowed, opening my mouth to let out a retort, but my lips ultimately closed again.

As much as I hated it… Yes, I knew.

Quickly looking away to hide the tears that were threatening to spill, I stayed silent.

Suddenly, Chris spoke up. “Now, now,” he said, gesturing in a placating manner once again. “Let’s all sit down and discuss this with some civility, shall we?”

The four Elders, save for Degas, snapped their heads toward Chris. They watched him for a moment, each of them reacting in varying ways, before Fatima finally let out a deep sigh and lowered herself back into her seat.

Chris then looked over at me and nodded subtly toward my chair, indicating for me to sit as well.

My movements felt stiff and robotic as I pulled my chair out and slowly sat down, the wood creaking beneath me. At another nod from Chris, Leonard sat as well. Leonard and I shot each other wary glances across the table.

I felt like I might be sick. Leonard met my gaze and offered me a thin smile as support, but I hardly saw it.

Finally, once we were all seated, Chris cleared his throat. “You’ve got us all wrong,” he said with a surprising amount of calmness in his voice. “Ava and I—”

“How long have you two been romantically involved?” Elder Elise suddenly snapped, her withering gaze darting back and forth between me and Chris. “Weeks? Months?”

Chris shook his head and, to my surprise, offered Elise a warm smile.

“No, Elise,” he said. “Ava and I are not romantically involved at all.”