All Chapters of The Luna He Gave Away : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Lyra's POVI heard Kael's footsteps before I saw him. I knew them well enough by now to recognize them before he came around the corner. He didn't call out or announce himself. He just appeared in the stable entrance with an envelope in his hand and crossed to where I was standing by the second stall.The stables were at the far edge of the inner grounds, past the training yard and the storage buildings, far enough from the main keep that the sounds of the household didn't reach them. The horses didn't care who I was or what title I held. They just moved and breathed and made the kind of noise that filled a space without demanding anything.I’d been coming here for two weeks.He held it out.I took it.The handwriting on the front was the palace's official script, but the name was mine, and the return address was my father's estate.I opened it and started reading.The letter was two pages.It asked after my health. My comfort. Whether the transition to Blackthorne had been difficult.

Lyra's POVSomething changed in the keep the day after the patrol report.Nothing announced. Nobody gathered the pack and explained. But by breakfast the guard rotation at the northern gate had doubled, and by midmorning two additional wolves had been added to the outer perimeter without any formal instruction that I had heard.Kael had made the changes quietly, the way he made most things.I found him in the courtyard going over the new assignments with Gareth, a map spread across the outdoor stone table, both of them leaning over it in the cold morning air. Two patrol captains stood nearby, waiting. I came and stood beside Kael without asking whether I should be there.He moved the map slightly so I could see it better.That was all. No invitation, no explanation. Only the map adjusted in my direction, and Gareth glanced at me once before returning to whatever point he had been making.I listened and said nothing while they finished.We moved to the covered walkway when the wind pic

Lyra's POVI had started watching the evening drills because I needed somewhere to put my thoughts.The northern training ground was different from the main courtyard, more open, pressed up against the tree line, with the kind of space that made you feel the size of Blackthorne territory rather than just the keep. The wolves trained harder here. Longer distances, rougher terrain, fewer allowances for form over function.I stood at the edge of it in the fading light and watched them work.The drill master was running a pursuit pattern—two groups, one chasing, one evading, the trees at the border marking the edge of legal movement. The wolves moved fast in the cold air, their breath visible, the sound of it sharp and rhythmic.Snow burst beneath their boots as the pursuing wolves cut across the frozen ground.I had been watching for about twenty minutes when the three wolves came in from the north.I noticed them before anyone else did because I was already facing that direction.They c

Lyra's POVThe assembly was called for midday.Word moved through the keep, fast, full pack, great hall, no exceptions. By the time I came downstairs, wolves were already filling the long benches and standing space along the walls. Wolves from the council, the training ground, and the outer settlements. Faces I recognized. Faces I didn't. All of them gathered in the same room, and all them watching the front when Kael and I walked in.I took my place beside him.The room was loud with movement for another minute. Then it settled.Kael spoke without preamble."A formal challenge has been filed with the noble council questioning the legitimacy of the Luna's position in Blackthorne," he said. "The grounds are political coercion and insufficient bloodline credentials. We have ten days to respond. If we don't, the marriage is voided by default."He let that sit."A counter-declaration is being prepared. It requires pack consensus. That's why you're here."He stopped talking.The hall didn'

Lyra's POVWe were still in the library when Gareth spread the forged decree on the table.Kael had lit a second lamp. Frost covered every window, and the great hall outside was barely awake, just the distant sound of the early patrol changeover, boots on cold stone, voices low. The sky outside was the particular grey of dawn that hadn't decided yet whether it was going to clear.The decree sat between us, and we looked at it the way you look at something you need to solve before it solves you."Three options," Kael said. "We appear, which means walking into whatever she has prepared in the capital. We refuse to hand her the default void without requiring her to do anything further. Or we file the counter-declaration and force the noble council to choose sides publicly.""The counter-declaration is already prepared," I said."Filing it in response to a forged document has different implications than filing it under normal circumstances," Gareth said. "If Isolde contests the counter on