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CHAPTER ONE: The Girl Everyone Laughed At
Date de publication:
2026-07-01 13:01:53Lyra's POV
Someone snickers behind me. "Is that her?" Another voice, louder this time. "She's supposed to become somebody's Luna? She can't even fill out her ceremony dress." Laughter ripples through the crowd like wildfire catching dry grass. I clutch the silver fabric tighter around my ribs, wishing it would just... swallow me whole. Tonight is Mate Ceremony. The night every unmated she-wolf in the pack has dreamed about since she was old enough to shift. For me, it's the night everyone showed up just to watch me lose. "Look at her arms," someone whispers. Not even quietly. "How's she supposed to survive a birth, let alone a heat?" An older woman near the front asks, shaking her head like I'm a stray dog that wandered into a wedding. "Poor thing. No wolf in her right mind will accept that." A little girl, maybe six, imitates my walk behind her mother's skirt — shoulders hunched, arms wrapped around herself. Her mother laughs and doesn't correct her. I keep my chin up. I've had years of practice pretending I don't hear. I do hear. Every word. The moonlit courtyard is packed wall to wall, unmated wolves in their ceremony best, waiting for the Moon Priestess to call the names. Somewhere in this crowd is the boy who'll be my mate — chosen by fate, sealed by the bond, no say in the matter for either of us. I used to think that was romantic. Tonight it just feels like a countdown to humiliation. The Moon Priestess climbs the stone steps at the center of the courtyard, staff in hand, silver robes catching the moonlight. The chatter dies to a hush. Then a new sound ripples through the crowd — not laughter this time. Something closer to a held breath. "He's here." I don't need to ask who. Alpha Draven walks in like the ground owes him something. Broad-shouldered, dark-haired, eyes the color of a storm that hasn't decided whether to break yet. Every wolf in the courtyard turns to watch him cross to the front — Betas straightening, Omegas ducking their heads, girls twice my size sucking in their stomachs like it might matter. He doesn't look at any of them. He looks at me. I don't know why. I don't know how. But for one impossible second, across an entire courtyard full of people who'd rather I disappear, his eyes land on mine and he doesn't look away. Neither do I. Something low in my chest turns over, warm and terrifying, like my wolf just woke up and started pacing. Someone clears their throat behind me. I break the stare first, heart slamming so hard I'm sure the wolf beside me can hear it. That can't have meant anything. Alphas like him don't look at girls like me. Not really. The Moon Priestess raises her staff, and the whole courtyard falls silent, three hundred wolves holding their breath at once. "Tonight," she says, voice carrying without effort, "the Moon Goddess speaks." A murmur. A shuffle of feet. Somewhere behind me, a girl grips her friend's arm so hard I hear the fabric strain. "The Moon Goddess has chosen..." The staff swings. Points. Straight at me. "...YOU."
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Too Skinny To Be Luna CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN: Training Under Threat
Lyra's POV"Again," Kaelan says, and there's an edge in his voice this morning that wasn't there yesterday, something harder and more urgent beneath the familiar instruction.I reset my stance, sweat already soaking through my training clothes despite the early hour, muscles aching from a session that's already run twice as long as our usual routine. "We've done this sequence six times.""We'll do it seven, if that's what it takes." He doesn't soften the words with his usual warmth, doesn't offer the encouraging half-smile that normally accompanies even his most demanding corrections. "You froze on the fifth repetition. That's not acceptable anymore, Lyra.""I didn't freeze, I hesitated for half a second—""Half a second is the difference between surviving an extraction attempt and not," he says, sharp enough that I actually flinch, and something in his expression immediately softens, though the underlying urgency doesn't fully fade. "I'm sorry. That was harsher than necessary.""No,"
Too Skinny To Be Luna CHAPTER FORTY-SIX: "Warning Signs
Lyra's POVThe scout report arrives three days after the Priestess's horrifying revelation about the extraction ritual, and I can tell from the messenger's face, breathless and pale at the war room's entrance, that whatever he's carrying isn't going to make anyone's morning easier."Border patrol spotted movement along the northern tree line," he says, still catching his breath. "Multiple wolves, organized formation, deliberately avoiding the main roads. We tracked them for nearly an hour before they slipped out of range.""How many?" Kaelan asks, already leaning over the war table's map."At least a dozen, possibly more. Disciplined movement — this wasn't a random pack of scavengers or opportunistic rogues. They moved like they'd trained together. Like they had a specific objective."Draven's jaw tightens. "Did anyone get close enough for a proper look? Markings, colors, anything identifiable?"The scout hesitates, something uncertain crossing his face. "One of them," he says slowly.
Too Skinny To Be Luna CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE: What Extraction Means
Lyra's POV The Priestess summons me urgently, midway through my afternoon training session with Kaelan, a servant arriving breathless with the message that the matter can't wait until evening. I find her in the archive room, surrounded by more open texts than I've ever seen her working with at once, several pages marked with strips of torn cloth where ribbon apparently ran out, her expression grim in a way that immediately sets my nerves on edge. "What's happened?" I ask, Kaelan arriving just behind me, having insisted on accompanying me the moment the summons reached us both. "I've found something," the Priestess says, not looking up from the text in front of her. "Buried in one of the older volumes — a section I'd previously dismissed as purely historical, cataloging methods used against True Lunas throughout recorded history. I nearly overlooked its relevance until a passing comment from my new research assistant sent me back to reread it more carefully." "What kind of methods
Too Skinny To Be Luna CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: The Council's New Leader
Unknown POVThe chamber beneath the ruins has changed since Grath first offered his tentative leadership weeks ago — more organized now, torches replaced with proper lanterns, the loose circle of frightened remnants reshaped into something resembling actual structure. A dozen has become two dozen. Word travels, apparently, even among an organization that spent weeks believing itself finished.I stand at the head of what's become, in practice if not yet in formal declaration, my own war table, watching the assembled Council members settle into their places with the particular deference that comes from having witnessed genuine competence after months of drift and uncertainty."Selene's reports have been useful," Grath says, standing near my right hand, the position he's earned through weeks of careful, patient loyalty since the night I first stepped into that guttering torchlight. "She's embedded herself within the Priestess's research circle. Access to the bloodline records, direct obs
Too Skinny To Be Luna CHAPTER FORTY-THREE: Selene's Return, Disguised
Selene's POVThe disguise takes three days to perfect, and I'm rather proud of the result.I dye my hair a plain, unremarkable brown, nothing like the deep red that marks me as distinctly myself to anyone who's seen me even once. I bind my figure into simpler, coarser clothing, the kind a traveling healer's apprentice might wear, and practice a slight accent shift until it settles naturally rather than sounding performed. By the time I approach Blackmoor's outer gates, I look, I'm confident, exactly like nobody worth a second glance."Papers?" the gate guard asks, barely looking up from his post."Apprentice healer," I say, offering the forged documentation Grath's contacts arranged with impressive speed. "Traveling to study under the Priestess here. I understand she's taken an interest in ancient bloodline texts recently. My mentor thought I might be useful."The guard glances at the papers, then at me, then waves me through without further question. I suppress the small, satisfied s
Too Skinny To Be Luna CHAPTER FORTY-TWO: A Quiet Afternoon
Lyra's POVFor once, nothing demands our attention.No training scheduled, no Elders requesting audiences, no letters arriving with unfamiliar seals to unsettle an otherwise ordinary day. Kaelan finds me reading in the eastern garden — the same overgrown corner with the broken fountain, though someone's finally repaired it properly, water trickling in a steady, pleasant rhythm now instead of the weak gurgle it managed weeks ago."May I join you?" he asks, though he's already settling onto the grass beside my bench before I've fully answered."You're already sitting down.""A formality," he says, stretching out comfortably, hands folded behind his head, looking entirely too pleased with himself for someone who's just invaded my quiet reading spot uninvited.I return to my book, though I find myself more aware of him than the actual words on the page — the easy way he's sprawled in the afternoon sun, the faint, contented sigh he lets out as he closes his eyes against the light."You loo
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