All Chapters of His Contract Luna Says Goodbye : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

ELLARIA.I couldn't stop pacing.Thumbnail between my teeth, bare feet dragging along the cold floor of our dark bedroom. Whose is it.That was the first thing out of his mouth. Not are you okay. Not how long have you known. Just that instead, such a flat and certain accusation before I had even finished speaking. Almost five years, and that was where his mind went first.My throat tightened and I pressed the back of my hand against my mouth and stood there in the middle of the room while the tears came up whether I wanted them to or not. Before I signed that contract I had told myself something. That if I gave him enough... if I showed up enough... if I made myself genuinely indispensable to this man and this pack... that eventually something in him would soften toward me. It wasn’t a fairytale I was asking or looking for. I just wanted to matter to him. I’d always just wanted to be someone Arren reached for instead of someone he tolerated. I thought time spent well would give me

ELLARIA.Arren hadn't come back after I slapped him last night. We’d stared at each other with nothing left to say and I hadn’t seen him since he slammed the door on his way out.In the light of the morning, the house was completely quiet and I'd spent too long standing in the living room with my hand pressed to my stomach, my heart still full of everything that had just happened.I was not staying in this house.I grabbed my purse and my coat and walked to the front door and pulled it open.The last person I expected to see greeted me. Katerina was standing on the porch.We looked at each other, and her mouth curved into a slow smile. "Leaving so soon?" she asked, titling her head. "How shameless."I tried to step past her. "Get out of my way, Katerina.""Having an affair in your own marriage." She studied me as she blocked my path, taking her time with it. "Then spreading lies that the baby belongs to our Alpha. That takes nerve, I'll give you that.""I haven't had an affair." I

ELLARIA.The twins were gone.I pressed both hands against my stomach and the sound that came out of me didn't feel like mine. I curled onto my side and sobbed hard, somewhere in the middle of it Mirela climbed onto the bed behind me and held on. I let her, knowing I had nothing and no one else. When the worst of it had passed, I was completely empty."It's going to be okay," she said.I stared at the wall. "Where's Arren."She went quiet for a second. "He's... with Katerina."I nodded slowly.I lay there breathing, lost in all the ways I could have done better. After a while I said, "I should have protected them.""Ellaria—""I didn't though." My throat was raw. "I couldn't even do that one thing." I pressed my hands back against my stomach. "It’s just like... how I killed my mother,” I buried my face into my pillow. “I don't know why I keep expecting things to be different."Mirela sat up. "What do you mean you killed your mother.?"I shook my head."What do you mean," she said ag

ELLARIA.Mirela was wringing her hands.I noticed it the moment she walked in. She was standing in the doorway watching me fold my coat into my bag and her hands were twisting around each other the way they did when she had something to say that she knew I wasn't going to want to hear."What," I said."This is a bad idea."I kept folding. "Help me or don't. But I'm leaving.""Ellaria." She came further into the room. "I need you to listen to me for a second.""I've been listening all day." I picked up my things from the bedside table. "I'm done listening. I want to go.""You can't just go." She stepped in front of me. "That's what I'm trying to tell you. You're a pack member, and not just a regular one. You're the Luna. You can't leave without Arren's permission or you become a rogue."I looked at her and let her say her piece."No pack will take you in," she said. "Not without papers. Not without clearance from your Alpha. You'd be completely alone out there with no wolf and no prote

ARREN.She wasn't budging.I could see it in the way she was standing, completely shut off from me, and I knew that if I didn't do something different right now she was going to walk out of this room. And I was never going to get her back.I looked at her and felt something sit heavy in my chest.She had been in pain for so long and I hadn't once stopped to ask myself if I was right. She had stood in front of me and told me the truth and I had decided she was lying because it was easier than the alternative.I wanted to put my fist through something.But that wasn't going to keep her here so I pushed it down and tried to think."You're not well enough to leave." I kept my voice level. "Your body just went through something serious and you have no wolf and no pack clearance. You know what that means out there." I watched her face. "I'm not saying it to keep you here. I'm saying it because it's true."She didn't respond."I want to offer you another contract." I said it carefully. "Thr