All Chapters of Too Skinny To Be Luna : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

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

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."

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

Lyra's POVSomething's different about him after Soren's message.I notice it first at dinner — small things, the kind only someone who's spent the last several days learning the particular rhythms of a person would catch. He laughs a beat too late at something one of the Elders says. He answers a question about tomorrow's council meeting and then, a moment later, seems to forget he already answered it, repeating himself with a distracted little frown before catching his own mistake."You're somewhere else tonight," I say, low, leaning toward him while the Elders argue amongst themselves about grain stores for the coming winter."I'm right here." He smiles, and it's a good smile, practiced and warm, but I've spent enough time watching him now to recognize the difference between the smile he means and the one he's using to smooth over something else."You're not, actually." I keep my voice light, testing. "You've been somewhere else since your Beta pulled you aside this afternoon."So

Lyra's POVI don't confront him about the burned envelope right away.I turn the melted wax fragment over in my hands for the better part of a day, tucked into a pocket, its jagged edges pressing against my palm every time I reach for something else and remember it's there. I tell myself I'm waiting for the right moment. Really, I think I'm waiting to see if he'll bring it up himself, if honesty will finally win out over whatever careful management he's been practicing since Soren's arrival.He doesn't.By the time I find him again — two evenings after the tavern incident, after Draven's humiliated retreat and the careful, awkward distance that's settled over the whole pack house since — Kaelan's sitting alone on the same stone wall in the eastern garden where he first made me laugh, staring at nothing in particular, shoulders carrying a weight I haven't seen on him before."You've been avoiding me," I say, settling beside him without waiting for an invitation this time."I haven't,"