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CHAPTER TWELVE: A Formal Claim
publish date:
2026-07-03 03:29:59
Latest chapter
Too Skinny To Be Luna CHAPTER SIXTEEN: A Letter from the South
Kaelan's POVThe days since the garden have taken on a rhythm I haven't allowed myself in longer than I care to admit — mornings spent in council with Blackmoor's Elders, afternoons spent, more often than not, finding some excuse to be wherever Lyra happens to be.Today it's the training yard, empty at this hour, the late sun slanting gold across the packed dirt. She's practicing a sequence a pack warrior taught her weeks ago — footwork, mostly, nothing that engages the power sleeping beneath her skin — and I've told myself I'm here to observe her progress as a matter of strategic interest.I'm not entirely sure I believe that anymore."You're watching my feet wrong," she says, not looking at me, correcting a stance before I've said a single word about it."I'm not watching your feet at all," I say, honestly, and have the satisfaction of seeing her falter half a step, color rising faintly in her cheeks before she recovers."That's not better.""I didn't say it was better. I said it wa
Too Skinny To Be Luna CHAPTER FIFTEEN: First Walk
Lyra's POVHe finds me an hour later, sitting alone on the low stone wall that borders the eastern gardens — the quiet part of the grounds nobody bothers with, all overgrown hedges and a fountain that hasn't worked properly in years. I didn't expect anyone to look for me here. I definitely didn't expect him to find me on the first try."May I sit?" Kaelan asks, hovering a polite distance away like he's genuinely prepared to accept no for an answer.I consider making him work for it. Then I sigh and shift over on the wall, which he apparently takes as sufficient permission, settling beside me with far more grace than a man his size has any right to possess.For a while, neither of us says anything. The broken fountain gurgles weakly beside us, and somewhere overhead a bird finally, cautiously, starts singing again — the first birdsong I've heard since the ground started shaking two days ago."You handled that well," he says eventually. "Back in the courtyard.""I yelled at two grown A
Too Skinny To Be Luna CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Old Wounds, New Audience
Lyra's POVI see it a half-second before it happens — the way Draven's shoulders drop, the way his breathing changes, sharp and shallow, the way his hands, still clenched at his sides, suddenly aren't hands anymore.Claws.Fully extended, glinting wickedly even in daylight, sprouting from fingers still attached to a human arm — a half-shift no sane wolf attempts in casual anger, painful and reckless and entirely, dangerously deliberate."Draven—" I start, but it's already too late.He lunges.Not at me. At Kaelan — a full, committed strike aimed at the throat, the kind of blow meant to end a fight in a single motion, humiliation and fury driving every inch of it. The crowd gasps as one, several Elders stumbling backward, someone screaming for guards who are already too far away to intervene in time.Kaelan doesn't even look surprised.He shifts his weight a fraction of a second before the claws would have connected — not a full step back, just enough of a lean that Draven's strike sl
Too Skinny To Be Luna CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Alpha's Objection
Lyra's POVThe courtyard holds its breath.Draven doesn't stop at the edge of the crowd. He pushes through it, warriors and Elders alike stepping aside more out of instinct than respect, until he's standing close enough to the dais that I can see the muscle working furiously in his jaw."Draven." My voice comes out sharper than I mean it to. "What are you doing?"He doesn't look at me. His eyes are fixed entirely on Kaelan, still kneeling with my hand in his, and something in that stare makes my stomach twist."I have the right to speak before this claim is finalized," Draven says. His voice carries, formal in a way I've never heard him use with me, though I recognize it from council matters — the register of an Alpha invoking law, not emotion. "Pack custom allows any prior-bonded mate to raise objection before a new courtship is sealed."The Priestess's staff lowers slightly, her expression unreadable. "That custom exists, Alpha Draven. Though it's rarely invoked.""I'm invoking it."
Too Skinny To Be Luna CHAPTER TWELVE: A Formal Claim
Lyra's POVI wake to the sound of my own door opening without a knock.Three maids sweep in before I've even fully pried my eyes open, arms loaded with things I don't recognize — bolts of fabric in deep silvers and blues, small polished boxes, a tray of oils that smell like crushed flowers I've never encountered before. I sit up, blinking, thoroughly confused."Good morning, my lady," the eldest of them says, already setting the tray down and reaching for the curtains. Sunlight floods the room before I can object. "We've a great deal to do before midday.""Do about what?"She pauses just long enough to look faintly surprised that I don't already know. "The King's formal courting request, my lady. He's asked the Elders to prepare the proper ceremony."I blink. "When did this start?""This morning, my lady. Very early." She says it like it's the most natural thing in the world, already unpacking a comb from one of the boxes. "His Majesty was quite insistent."Of course he was.There's n
Too Skinny To Be Luna CHAPTER ELEVEN: What Do I Owe Him?
Lyra's POVThe Elders corner Kaelan before he's even finished his second cup of wine.I watch it happen from across the emptying hall — the silver-bearded Elder, the same one who stood beside the Priestess back when the missing pages were first discovered, approaching with the kind of careful humility I've never once seen him extend to Draven."Your Majesty," he says, bowing low enough that his beard nearly brushes the floor. "Blackmoor would be honored if you'd consider staying with us. However long you require."Kaelan's eyes flick toward me before he answers — quick, deliberate, like he wants to see my reaction before he commits to anything."I'd like that," he says simply.The relief that ripples through the remaining Elders is almost comical. Within the hour, servants are already preparing what used to be a disused guest wing — the largest rooms in the pack house, the ones reserved historically for visiting royalty that hasn't actually visited in living memory. By the time I ret
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