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Chapter 3

Author: Redleaves
A heavy lock hung on the dressing room door, sealed with Beta's wax stamp.

Kane's hand froze in midair, still holding mine.

He clearly hadn't expected to see Selena's mark on the Luna's own dressing room.

"What is this?"

I answered calmly. "Selena said the Luna's gowns and jewelry belong to pack property. I can't handle them freely. Every time I need to open the dressing room, I have to submit a request to her. She approves it, I get the lock opened. After I take what I need, she puts on a new one."

Kane's frown deepened.

For a moment, a faint, foolish hope flickered in my chest. Maybe seeing it with his own eyes would finally make him understand what my life had been like all these years.

I used to be the youngest priestess in the Moon Temple. At seventeen, I could conduct purification rites alone. Alphas from other packs bowed to me when they came. Kane chased me for three full years. He stood outside the temple in a blizzard for seven nights straight. He crossed Death Valley just to bring me a single Silvermoon Bloom.

He said that once I became his Luna, I wouldn't have to guard that cold temple anymore. He said he'd make me the most respected Luna in the Blackwood Pack. He said he loved me.

I believed him.

For him, I took off my priestess robes. I let him mark me.

Seven years later, I couldn't even choose my own clothes.

Kane stared at the lock in silence for a long time.

That tiny ember in my chest, the one I should have let die long ago, wavered with his silence.

Then he looked away.

"Selena's methods are indeed strict."

I watched him, waiting.

Kane sighed, almost sounding helpless.

"But she's doing it for your own good."

That ember died.

"You spent years in the Moon Temple. You're not familiar with pack customs. One mistake, and the whole pack loses face." He gripped my arms, looking down at me. "Selena keeps these things for you because she's afraid you'll slip up."

I couldn't help asking, "So locking up the Luna's dressing room is because I'm incompetent?"

"That's not what I meant."

Impatience flickered across his face, but he kept his voice soothing.

"Why do you always have to make everything so dramatic? They're just a few gowns, a few accessories. If you want something, just tell Selena."

I let out a quiet laugh.

That was exactly what I'd done for seven years.

Before the Moon Prayer, I'd submit my gown request two weeks early. She'd approve it the night before. For the Border Council meeting, she locked the jewelry case over a color mismatch and made me wear wooden hairpins the maids found last minute. The other pack members mocked me for being shabby. Kane scolded me in public for not caring about Blackwood's image.

I'd explained it countless times.

He never believed me.

Even now, with the evidence right in front of him, he still found excuses for her.

Not because the truth wasn't clear.

But because I was the one who got hurt.

Kane saw I wasn't speaking and took it as acceptance.

He pulled out a dark wooden box and opened it to reveal a necklace set with moonstones.

"Stop sulking." He lifted the necklace, his voice softening. "You've been good lately. I bought this specially for you. Let me put it on."

He moved behind me to fasten it.

I stepped back half a step without thinking.

His hand stopped in the air. Surprise flickered in his eyes.

"What, you don't like it?"

"It's beautiful." I said. "I'm just tired."

Kane studied my pale face and finally let it go. He put the necklace back in the box, as if granting me a great favor.

"Fine. We'll do it tomorrow then. I'll have this lock removed tonight. From now on, the dressing room is yours to manage. And I'll have Selena return your Luna authority gradually."

He patted my hair, smiling with satisfaction.

"As long as you stay obedient like today, I'll give back everything that belongs to the Luna."

I nodded submissively. "Okay."

Kane pulled me into his arms. "The moon is beautiful tonight. How about we have a drink?"

My gaze went past his shoulder to the moon outside.

Soon. Only an hour left.

"Okay." I nodded. "Actually, I have something I want to tell you too."
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  • Under a New Moon   Chapter 10

    Three years later, I became the High Priestess of the Moon Temple. This position wasn't given to me by anyone's charity. It was earned, vote by vote, from every member of the Moon Temple.I had a new life now. Each day, I presided over the Moon Prayer ceremonies, taught young priestesses, and reviewed aid applications sent in from various packs. The Alphas of every major pack had to suppress their auras and bow their heads to me when they came.Over those three years, I heard fragments of rumors about Kane. He seemed to be doing poorly. Word had it he'd drowned himself in alcohol, made one bad call after another on major decisions. The Blackwood Elder Council still took his orders on the surface, but behind closed doors, they'd begun questioning whether he was fit to lead the pack.I let those rumors pass in one ear and out the other. I had more important matters to attend to now.Until the day before Blackwood was set to hold a new Alpha election, I received their formal notice. Along

  • Under a New Moon   Chapter 9

    Three days after the trial ended, Blackwood Pack's caravan stopped outside the Moon Temple again. Crystals, jewels, and the deeds to Kane's private lands filled the entire stone staircase before the temple. He even sent the key to his Alpha private vault, saying that if I was willing to return, everything in Blackwood would be mine to command.I had the attendants return everything. But I kept the Moonspring deed.I converted the Moonspring into a public facility. Any she-wolf carrying a healer's emergency stamp could soak in the Moonspring immediately, free of charge. The spirit of the pup who had been turned away at those gates became, in the end, a shelter for every pup to come.After the gifts were returned, Kane came himself. The guards said he stood outside the temple for days, from dusk until the moon set."Will you see him?" an attendant asked me.I turned a page of the prayer book."No."I never knew which day he finally gave up and left. And I didn't care.Three weeks later,

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  • Under a New Moon   Chapter 7

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  • Under a New Moon   Chapter 6

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  • Under a New Moon   Chapter 5

    Kane's POVKane returned to the estate in the dead of night. Before that, he'd been at Selena's residence the whole time.Selena had cut her finger on a silver dagger, a tiny gash that she claimed wouldn't stop bleeding. By the time Kane arrived, the bleeding had already stopped. But Selena acted like she'd been through something traumatic, clutching her hand repeatedly, her eyes red as she asked Kane if it would leave a scar.Kane found it irritating, but he kept his patience and soothed her himself. After all, Selena's brother had taken a fatal silver arrow for him. That debt, he couldn't forget.As for Evelyn, he assumed she'd have calmed down by now. Her talk of leaving was just empty threats. For seven years, every time she threw a fit, she'd end up bowing her head in the end. Even with red-rimmed eyes, she'd still prepare his hot soup and organize the documents he needed for the next day's council meeting.But this time, the estate was dark. Looked like Evelyn had gone to sleep.

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