All Chapters of THE LUNAR THAT WASN'T ENOUGH : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

The drones arrived first.Not the paparazzi themselves, those came later, setting up along the palace gate in organized rows like they'd been assigned positions. The drones came at dawn on Saturday, three of them, hovering beyond the legal airspace boundary with cameras that could read a newspaper headline from two hundred meters.Leila learned about them the way she learned about most things now. Clara, standing in her doorway at six forty-five in the morning with the particular expression that meant I have news and none of it is good."How many?" Leila asked."Thirty-seven as of twenty minutes ago. Security expects more by nine.""And the drones?""Communications is filing the airspace complaint now."Leila looked at the ceiling."So I can't go outside.""Not today. I'm sorry."She'd known this was coming. Had known the moment she stepped away from the podium yesterday that the window, the carefully managed, tightly controlled window she'd had for seventeen weeks, was closed permane

The gala was his idea, but the balcony was hers.She'd needed air an hour in, the room too warm, the crowd too attentive, too many eyes tracking every time Harry touched the small of her back or leaned down to say something in her ear. The currency of public appearances was exhausting in a way she still hadn't gotten used to. Every gesture documented. Every expression analyzed.She'd excused herself, found the balcony off the east corridor, and stood in the November cold for four minutes before Harry appeared beside her.He didn't ask if she was okay.Just stood there, jacket already removed and draped over her shoulders before she'd noticed him move."You don't have to…""I know," he said.They stood in comfortable quiet. Below them, the gala continued, music and voices drifting up, the warm light of the venue spilling out across the manicured grounds. From up here it looked beautiful and manageable, which was the precise opposite of how it felt from inside.Leila pulled the jacket t

The scream woke the entire east wing.Not a sound anyone in Blue Moon Pack had ever heard from their Alpha. Not in three years of his leadership, not through the financial crisis, not through the divorce. Adrian Blackwood did not make sounds like that. He was the man who delivered bad news in a level voice and handled emergencies with the particular calm of someone who had decided long ago that falling apart was a luxury he couldn't afford.Which made the sound at four in the morning, raw, broken, the kind that comes from somewhere below conscious control, all the more alarming.Alex reached his door in forty seconds.The dream had been specific this time.That was the worst part. Not vague nightmare logic that dissolved at waking. This one had detail. Texture. The particular cruelty of something that felt true.A birthday party. Somewhere bright, a garden, balloons in colors he couldn't name afterward. A child in the middle of it, dark hair, maybe four years old, running between adul

She didn't plan it.That was the thing she told herself afterward, that it wasn't a decision, just something her hand did while her mind was elsewhere. She'd sat down at the desk intending to review the governance brief Darius had left, had found a piece of palace stationery already in front of her, and had picked up a pen without making any conscious choice about it.The first line wrote itself.I don't know why I'm doing this.She looked at it.Kept going.You should know it's a girl.*We had the gender reveal yesterday. My father cried. Not dramatically, he's not that kind of man. He just sat down and covered his mouth and looked at pink flowers for a long moment, and I understood that he was seeing Helena in it somewhere. A granddaughter she'll never meet.Her heartbeat is fast. Faster than I expected the first time I heard it. Dr. Winters said that's normal. I've stopped being surprised by how often I'm told that things I have no reference for are apparently normal.She kicks at

The numbers were good.Better than good, actually. The quarterly report Alex set on Adrian's desk showed three new contracts, two regional partnerships, and a profit margin that would have made Margaret weep with relief six months ago.Adrian read it once. Set it down."Well?" Alex said."Send confirmation letters to the Harmon group by end of week." Adrian was already reaching for the next file. "And tell Morrison I want revised terms on the eastern territory deal before we sign anything.""That's it?""What else do you want me to say?"Alex said nothing.What he wanted to say was: Six months ago you would have poured two glasses, put your feet on the desk, and called Morrison yourself just to negotiate better terms for sport. He picked up the report and left.The pack noticed in the way packs always noticed things, quietly, collectively, without anyone saying the actual words out loud.It showed up in small ways. The kitchen staff started sending up meals he didn't order because th