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Chapter 3

Author: Jasmine Flower
On the fourth day after I left the border, my bedroom door opened while I was sorting my research notes.

Rowan stood on the threshold, snow still melting on his coat, his eyes bloodshot.

Relief crossed his face when he saw me.

“Why did you leave without telling me?”

He came straight to me and gripped my shoulders, looking me over for injuries.

“I woke up and you were gone. I thought something had happened to you in the storm.”

“The outpost said you’d joined the convoy, but the weather knocked out communications. I couldn’t find out whether you’d made it home.”

His voice was rough.

“A two-day journey took us four. Thank the Goddess you’re all right.”

Downstairs, I heard Noah.

Rowan’s mother greeted him with tears in her voice. “My darling grandson. You’re finally home.”

Rowan glanced toward the door, then back at me.

“Mother wanted to see Noah. It’s temporary, until I arrange somewhere else.”

He spoke as though that settled it. Once again, he had decided what I would have to accept.

Then he noticed the open window and crossed the room to close it.

“It’s freezing. Why leave this open?”

He reached for me. I stepped aside.

His hand hung between us.

“Still angry?”

After a moment, his voice softened.

“I was wrong. Once they’re settled, we’ll go to the lake for a few days. Just us.”

As though coming home through a blizzard and taking me away for a weekend could undo three years.

The elders arrived that afternoon.

Rowan’s mother placed a document in front of me: Recognition of Eligibility for Alpha Succession.

“Noah has Alpha blood, but he was born outside a formal mating. Your acknowledgment as Luna makes him eligible to inherit.”

The senior elder nodded.

“Under pack law, an Alpha’s pup born outside the mating must be recognized by the current Luna before entering the line of succession.”

Rowan’s mother held my gaze.

“The healers said you might never have another pup. Register Noah as yours, and he’ll be your son. When he becomes Alpha, everyone will honor you as his mother.”

Rowan frowned at her, but said nothing.

I looked at the signature line.

If I signed, they would stop pressing me. They would leave me alone long enough to go.

I picked up the pen.

Rowan covered my hand with his, mistaking my silence for hesitation.

“It’s only your name on a document.”

He lowered his voice.

“I know seeing him makes you think of the pup we lost. But you know what losing a child feels like, Elena. You understand how cruel it would be for a pup to grow up unacknowledged by his pack.”

I bent over the page, signed, and pressed my Luna’s seal beside my name.

Rowan relaxed.

“I knew you wouldn’t take this out on a child.”

He kissed my forehead while his mother gathered the papers.

“Good. His place in the succession is secure, and so is the alliance.”

Noah laughed outside the chamber. Mara led him in.

“Thank the Luna, sweetheart.”

Her voice was respectful. Her hand rested lightly on the amulet at his chest.

Gold, set with moonstone.

I stopped breathing.

I had designed it during my first pregnancy: a crescent surrounded by stars on the front, an inscription on the back.

For our Noah. May you always find your way home.

After we lost him, Rowan’s mother had locked it in the family vault.

Now another Noah wore it.

Mara followed my gaze.

“Your mother-in-law gave it to him. She said it was the finest pup’s amulet in the Alpha’s family. I didn’t know it belonged to your baby.”

Yet at the border, she had known exactly where his name came from.

Rowan stepped forward and began to undo the clasp. Noah flinched, his eyes filling.

“Daddy?”

Rowan stopped to wipe his tears.

“You’re not in trouble. This isn’t yours. I’ll get you another one.”

His mother intervened.

“Why take it off? It was made for the Alpha’s heir. Noah is the heir now.”

She turned to me.

“You signed the papers. How long are we going to keep fighting over a dead child?”

Silence fell.

“Mother.” Rowan’s voice darkened.

“Leave it on,” I said.

Everyone looked at me.

“It was made for Blood Moon’s heir. He may as well have it.”

Triumph flickered across Mara’s face.

“Thank your mother, Noah.”

“Thank you, Luna.”

His voice was bright and innocent.

People began praising my generosity, as though giving up the amulet were simply another duty I had finally agreed to perform.

I walked out.

Rowan caught up and took my wrist.

“I should have noticed, Elena. I’ll have the best jeweler make another.”

He adjusted my collar, guilt in his voice.

“I’ll write to the Alpha King. He can send a royal healer who specializes in fertility.”

“We’ll have a child of our own. I’ll make them an even better amulet myself.”

He didn’t know that child was already growing inside me.

I withdrew my hand.

“All right.”

He studied me for a moment.

I had agreed to everything. He ought to have been reassured.

Instead, something in my quietness unsettled him.

He didn’t understand it yet.

I wasn’t forgiving him. I was saying goodbye.
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